Someone Like Me
by Red River
Summary: On Hiatus. AU. Camp Wu – a place for juvenile delinquents. Only Ling Tong does not belong. Worst of all is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. How much can change in the course of a summer? GNxLT, other pairings inside.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Quantum's fiction request, which I'm finally getting off the ground. The idea's a little similar to "Holes," but I hope it's different enough to keep your interest.

Pairings: Gan Ning/Ling Tong, Zhou Yu/Sun Ce, Shang Xiang/Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang/Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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The assortment of cabins, lodges and patchy spruce nestled into the base of a high mountain valley was called Camp Wu – or, by those who knew it better, Camp Juvie.

It was a government-funded summer camp, replete with all the furnishings: twelve log cabins with double bunks, canoes on a long, glistening lake, a stable of well-broken horses, their tails swishing against the June heat. Picnic tables decorated with pine needles and thieving squirrels were laid out across the wide clearing, and in the very center of the unit, just outside the lodge that housed both the cafeteria and the manager's office, was the flagpole, its colors waving a greeting in the warm wind.

It was a nice façade. But even from where he sat in the passenger seat of his uncle's Subaru, one elbow leaned against the window that was keeping the air conditioning all to himself, sixteen-year-old Ling Tong could tell Camp Wu was one of those sites that would leave the earth a better place if it were just wiped out. It wasn't the scenery that needed cleansing – the mountains were pretty enough and the lake looked cool and inviting, ripples from the wind lapping it against an old, creaking dock. No, what Ling Tong could have done without was the group of people swarming off of two long, yellow buses, backpacks and sleeping bags hung off of them from all angles.

From what he could see, the people consisted of three managers – the adults with bullhorns, of whom his uncle Cheng Pu was one, who were trying ineffectually to organize the mobs of campers – eleven moderately-sized high schoolers who had to be the counselors, and about fifty screaming, racing schoolchildren between the ages of eight and ten, all of them bundled up in their best camping gear. No doubt the baseball caps and sunglasses adorning their eager faces were the parting gifts of proud parents, confident in their goodbyes that they had sent their children to the best home-away-from-home their kids could get for two months, a real gem among the summer programs available to preteens, the most upstanding establishment within four hundred miles.

What a joke.

Ling Tong leaned back in his seat and directed his gaze to the ceiling, uncomfortable despite the steady flow of unnaturally cold air across his face. He crossed his arms behind his head, remembering the advertisement for Camp Wu that he had seen on the site's brochure.

_At Camp Wu, your children will receive the highest quality of outdoor learning, games and fun available, all while under the responsible eye of our first-rate student volunteer counselors…_ Ling Tong snorted to himself, flicking a mote of dust out of the sunlit air. First-rate counselors – that was the real lie.

All of the counselors who came to Camp Wu were juvenile delinquents, sentenced to the community service project in place of serving time. Among the kids his age now assembled, only Ling Tong was not a member of the scum of society – only he had been brought here by accident.

For as long as Ling Tong could remember, his uncle Cheng Pu had done what his parents always called "civic work." It was only once he got into high school that he learned "civic work," in Cheng Pu's case, was about the same as being a parole officer for the members of society who were too young or whose crimes were too trifling to shut them away in juvenile hall where they actually belonged. Cheng Pu forced them into community service, tracked their whereabouts, and generally fought to reorient them to society, apparently something very few of them were interested in. And, once a year, he organized Camp Wu so that the odds and ends of his delinquency work could get a few karma points.

Ling Tong never associated with people like the ones who'd been gathered here. Sure, there were cliques in his school, gangs even, and sometimes he heard that things got violent, but he was wrapped up in the drama program and barely had a life outside the theater, let alone a social circle. And that was why his being at Camp Wu was a complete mistake – a mistake that his mother would be hearing more about as soon as he got back, and sooner if he could find a telephone in this blasted place.

_School had only been out for a week or so when Ling Cao and his family had invited Cheng Pu over for dinner, which wasn't so odd since Ling Tong's mother, Cheng Pu's sister, invited him over a lot. What should have caught Ling Tong's attention when he got home late that evening was how nicely the table had been set out, a full tablecloth and home-cooked meal in the place of the usual pizza or pre-made chicken that his parents' hectic schedule allowed. But Ling Tong was tired from a long day of practicing with the local theater company and he didn't pay the arrangements any mind, accepting his quick hug from Cheng Pu before digging into the food with abandon._

_After dinner, as his father was bringing out a plate of cookies and a round of milk, Ling Tong's mother cleared her throat, smiling at her son and her brother across the table. "Tong," she began, and immediately her son dropped his fork, recognizing the gentle tone of his mother's voice as an extremely bad sign. Mrs. Ling pulled at her collar and gave her brother another fleeting glance._

"_You know your father and I have to go on sabbatical this summer – we'll be in France almost until school starts again."_

_Ling Tong nodded warily, trying to find the catch in his mother's words. Mrs. Ling glanced at her husband for confirmation and then reached across the table to take her son's hands, brushing her soft professor's fingers over his._

"_I know you were supposed to stay here while we're gone, but now that the neighbors are going on vacation as well…" Mrs. Ling hesitated a moment and then sighed, running a hand through her graying hair. "Your father and I just don't feel comfortable leaving you here alone. There are so many things that could go wrong—"_

"_You're going to stay with your uncle," Ling Cao broke in, dropping a cookie onto his son's plate in his usual brusque fashion. Ling Tong's father gave him a sharp look before settling back into his chair, one elbow propped up against the table. "You'll be going to that camp he runs."_

"_No way!" Ling Tong shot back – but his was not the only voice of dissent, and Cheng Pu rose to his feet, bracing both hands against the table as he stared into his brother-in-law's cold eyes._

"_Cao, you can't do that. Tong doesn't belong with those kids – he's different from their kind. He shouldn't have to spend time with people who can't even keep themselves inside the law—"_

"_So just put him up in your office. I didn't say he had to play with them – I just said he was going with you."_

_Cheng Pu appeared at a loss for words, and the red swarming his cheeks made Ling Tong wonder whether there was going to be an explosion across the dinner table. Mrs. Ling headed it off with a hand on her brother's arm, her eyes pleading as she caught Cheng Pu's gaze._

"_Please, Pu. I know it's a lot to ask of you, but there's no one else we trust to take care of Tong while we're gone. And three months is just too long to take him with us." Mrs. Ling smiled encouragingly at her son across the empty plates. "Besides… Tong's a very nice boy. Surely he'll be able to make friends with some of the kids there. They're all about his age – and it might be good for him to meet some new people."_

_Cheng Pu sat slowly back into his seat, his face undecided as he looked between his desperate sister and her unaffected husband. Ling Tong huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his chair with his features set in a full scowl._

"_That's not fair. Why should I have to go to some stupid summer camp with a bunch of delinquents just because you and Dad are out of town? I'm old enough to take care of myself. It's not like I get a lot of adult supervision when you guys are here anyway, since you work all the time. What's the difference?"_

"_Tong—" his mother started, but Ling Cao didn't let her finish, standing up and staring his son down from his full height._

"_Listen here. The work your mother and I do is very important. Sometimes everything isn't going to work out how you want it – that's just a fact of life, and if you haven't learned that by now, then we've spoiled you rotten." Mrs. Ling pressed her lips together and said nothing, folding her hands in her lap as her husband glowered down at their only son. "There are a lot of people in this world who have things worse than you, and it might do you good to meet a few of them."_

_Ling Tong swallowed hard, fighting back the urge to argue that the people at Camp Wu weren't less fortunate than he, just worse human beings. Cheng Pu stared into his water glass, his coal-black eyes hard as Ling Cao sat back down and watched his son from across the table with a severe expression. At last Ling Tong's father sighed and reached down into his briefcase, retrieving the day's newspaper and flipping it open across his raised knee._

"_Now eat your cookie, and thank your uncle for taking care of you."_

_Ling Tong's face contorted, and he shoved himself to his feet, moving around the table at a near run. "Thanks," he snapped over his shoulder, and then he slammed the door to his room behind him and collapsed onto the bed, pummeling his pillow for a few minutes until the feeling subsided._

After that, Ling Tong had tried all manner of solutions, gimmicks, and undignified tantrums to try to get out of going to Camp Wu with his uncle. But in the end, nothing could sway his father – and now here he was, only minutes away from mosquitoes, sunburn, and the last people on earth he wanted anything to do with.

A tap on the window caught Ling Tong's attention, and he reclined his seat back to its upright position, glancing up to see Cheng Pu waving at him through the window. Reluctantly, Ling Tong cracked open the door, and the heat invaded along with his uncle's voice, ruining the effect of the air conditioning in a matter of seconds.

"Hey, Tong – you doing all right in there?"

Ling Tong huffed, folding both arms across his chest. "Sure. I'm just thrilled to be here. You know I'm a big nature freak." There was that, too. Ling Tong hated camping. He'd never liked it, or hiking, or any of that outdoorsy adventure kitsch. Now he was stuck in it for two months.

Cheng Pu sighed, running a hand through his coarse hair. "Come on, Tong – work with me. I didn't want this any more than you did."

Ling Tong glanced away, his gaze settling on the dashboard instead of his uncle's face. "…Yeah, I know. Sorry about that."

Cheng Pu laughed and reached out to shake his nephew's shoulder. "It's all right. I know that sharp tongue's what makes you so good in drama. Just watch yourself around here, all right? Some of the other kids have pretty short tempers."

Ling Tong gave a little snort. "You mean this isn't a camp for saints? Maybe I came to the wrong place."

His uncle shook his head. "Look – it won't be that bad, I promise. You're going to stay with me in the main lodge, and you won't have to see the other kids any time except meals. You brought some things to read, didn't you?" Ling Tong nodded, but it was a surly motion, equal in unhappiness to his black expression. Cheng Pu ruffled his hair. "Glad to hear it. Well, come on out – grab your bags, and as soon as the campers are in their groups I'll help you settle in. For now, you can just get the counselors' names. All right?"

"Sounds like I don't have much of a choice," Ling Tong grumbled, but he pushed himself out of the car anyway and surrendered to the summer heat, which was almost overpowering despite the thin atmosphere. He followed Cheng Pu to the trunk and slung three sets of bags over his shoulders – clothing, snacks, and entertainment – and then let his uncle lead him back toward the center of camp. The schoolchildren were all in a huge clump, and another of the managers – the nametag clipped to his cowboy hat read "Han Dang" – stood at their head, just finishing up a welcome speech.

Most of the children looked bored to tears, and the other half were restless, their eyes clearly pinned to the group of counselors at Han Dang's right. Ling Tong and Cheng Pu came to a stop somewhere near the back of this group, and Ling Tong surveyed the high schoolers surreptitiously beneath the fringe of his bangs. There were three girls and eight boys in total, all with varying degrees of ruffian practically spelled out across their faces. Ling Tong could tell immediately that his mother had been dreaming when she suggested he might make friends with some of them, and he folded his arms over his chest, keeping his voice low so that only Cheng Pu could hear him.

"This is it, huh?"

Cheng Pu nodded, one hand slipping up to pat his nephew's back in reassurance. Then he moved forward through the crowd to join the other managers and left Ling Tong alone, isolated in the midst of the delinquents with a heavy scowl on his face. Han Dang finished his speech and handed the bullhorn to an intensely burly, sunburned man in a lifeguard cap, whose booming voice echoed across the camp's central clearing even without the amplifier.

"Hello and welcome, everyone! My name is Huang Gai, and I'll be the senior manager here at Camp Wu. Before we divide you into groups, I'd like to go over a few of the rules…"

Ling Tong rolled his eyes, already tired of everything Camp Wu had to offer. A general murmur of boredom ran through the counselors and the schoolchildren at the announcement of the next speech's topic, and then a chorus of whispers began in the various sections of the gathering, everyone under thirty tuning out Huang Gai despite the sheer volume of his words.

"No one is allowed in the forest around camp after dark. There will be no fighting. Lights out is nine o'clock every night. You kids should either be in sight of the counselors or one of us managers at all times—"

The boy in front of Ling Tong shifted and stepped backward in obvious boredom, and as he did so the heel of his cowboy boot came down hard on Ling Tong's toes, prompting a yelp from the young drama student and a sweeping silence as all eyes turned to stare at the source of the noise.

"Hey! Watch what you're doing!" Ling Tong snapped, forgetting for a moment his promise to keep his tongue in check. The boy turned around and blinked at him, one hand coming up to run through the brunette spikes of his hair.

"Oh… sorry 'bout that. My bad," the boy offered, holding up one hand in a gesture of responsibility. His tan face was split by a charming grin to match his implacable accent, and Ling Tong had a feeling that in another circumstance the expression might have been friendly – but he was in no mood to make friends, and he crossed both arms over his chest, ignoring the sixty odd eyes that were watching their interaction.

"Apology not accepted, jerk. What are you, an ox? Watch where you're putting your feet when you've got heels on."

Ling Tong could hear mutters running through the people around him, and he was sure that had he looked Cheng Pu would have been making signals at him, urging him to stop before he got into a fight. But Ling Tong wasn't feeling particularly charitable, and neither apparently was the boy who'd bumped into him, his face contorting in a heavy frown. The young cowboy drew himself up and turned to face Ling Tong fully, eyes flashing dangerously in his formerly welcoming face.

"Hey now. Heels are for little girls like you – you oughta feel lucky I'm not wearin' my spurs." Ling Tong bristled at the insult, and the boy across from him folded both arms over his chest, looking Ling Tong up and down. "What's a lady like you doin' here anyway? You weren't on the bus with all the others."

Ling Tong opened his mouth to reply, his cheeks burning either from the sun or from anger at the other's comments, but Cheng Pu got there first, barreling through the flock of counselors to drop a hand onto both boys' shoulders. His eyes were hard, but his voice was so low that Ling Tong doubted it even carried to the other high schoolers around them, most of whom were peering curiously at him.

"Hey, you two." Cheng Pu glanced between them with a stern frown, his eyes softening a little as they landed on his nephew. "Ling Tong, bear with this just a little longer, all right? Just let me get these kids where they need to be. Then we'll go inside."

Ling Tong huffed, glancing away from his uncle to study the cabins instead. Cheng Pu turned his gaze to the other boy and Ling Tong could see his fingers tightening around the cowboy's shoulder, so hard that he wondered if the nails would leave a mark.

"Gan Ning… I told you to take those ridiculous boots off before you got here. Tennis shoes or sandals only, you hear me? You could hurt someone with those."

"Che." Gan Ning shook Cheng Pu's hand away and reached into his pocket for a lighter, pulling out the cigarette that had been tucked behind his ear and dropping the cylinder between his lips. "Would you shut yer trap, old man? I heard you the first time."

Cheng Pu snatched the cigarette from his lips and crushed it under his heel, his frown deepening as he ground his foot into the dirt. "No smoking – and don't talk to me that way. Being here is a privilege, Gan Ning – a privilege you could lose. Remember that."

Something about the speech seemed to snap Gan Ning out of his attitude, and he looked up at the manager seriously for the first time, slipping the lighter back into his pocket before running a hand through his disheveled hair. "I know, sir. Sorry. Didn't mean ta say that. It was a long ride, that's all."

Ling Tong watched the cowboy's transformation in open surprise, wondering silently whether Gan Ning had a split personality disorder or just a really short fuse. Cheng Pu sighed, and his posture relaxed as he patted the boy's shoulder. "I understand. But don't let it happen again, all right?"

Gan Ning nodded softly, and Cheng Pu moved back through the crowd to join his fellow managers, ignoring the whispers that went up on all sides of him and the stares focused on the boys he left behind. Gan Ning gave Ling Tong another sideways glance and shrugged a little.

"What's with you, anyway? I said I was sorry. You're kind of a brat, aren'tcha?"

Ling Tong huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and staring out across the lake. "You're kind of a jerk," he returned as Huang Gai resumed his explanation of the rules.

Gan Ning snorted but said nothing more, and Ling Tong glared at the glistening water, thinking to himself that he'd never been sorrier to have met anyone in his life as he was to have met Gan Ning, and that he'd never been so sorry to be anywhere as he was to be at Camp Wu.

End Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Quantum's fiction request, which I'm finally getting off the ground. The idea's a little similar to "Holes," but I hope it's different enough to keep your interest.

Pairings: Gan Ning/Ling Tong, Zhou Yu/Sun Ce, Shang Xiang/Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang/Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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It took a few more minutes for Huang Gai to finish explaining the rules, his voice booming across the campground with the treble of a resounding trumpet. From what Ling Tong could hear, it sounded like almost nothing was allowed at Camp Wu at all – no pranks, no swimming without supervision, no climbing the flagpole – and he couldn't help wondering whether the strict rules were intended for the campers or their questionable counselors.

But he had to admit that the rules didn't have his full attention – most of his concentration was focused on the back of Gan Ning's head in as powerful a glare as he could muster, and he found himself wishing the dislike building in the pit of his stomach were strong enough to compel the cowboy's ragtag mop of spiky hair to burst into flames.

Even though Gan Ning had turned back to the speaker and was no longer confronting him directly, Ling Tong discovered that every facet of the other boy bothered him – the way he tapped his toe against the ground, not even managing to keep a simple rhythm, and the occasional shifting from foot to foot. Ling Tong never would have guessed that so many annoying traits could occur in a single person, but Gan Ning was proof after all that even if Darwinism could get rid of all the world's idiots, it could never get rid of all the assholes.

The drama student huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, glowering at the clear sky above him. He was starting to sweat, and he didn't have any sunscreen on, and if the opening ceremonies took any longer he was just going to have to scream. Then maybe he'd take his frustration out on the jerk of a cowboy in front of him, and do the world a favor that Darwinism couldn't.

Fortunately for Ling Tong and the crowd of bored campers in front of him, Huang Gai finally came to the end of his speech, and the hulk of a manager turned back to share a quiet word with Han Dang, nodding a few times before his attention came back to the children seated on the ground before him. Ling Tong could see that a smile had captured his expression where it hadn't been before, and he chuckled as he lifted the bullhorn to his lips, his kind eyes twinkling as he looked out across the campers.

"Thank you all for your patience. I think, unless I'm mistaken, that we're finally ready to introduce your counselors."

There was a rustle of interest from the fifty-odd children, and Ling Tong noticed that most of them had straightened in their seats, whispering to one another as their gazes flashed over the group of high schoolers around him. The drama student took a step back to distance himself from those hopeful stares, and Gan Ning shot him a smirk over one shoulder, raising a cocky eyebrow beneath his hopeless bangs.

"Scared?" he taunted, keeping his voice low to avoid attention. Ling Tong made a face at him.

"No. Just worried that your bad attitude might rub off on me," he shot back, flipping his ponytail away from his neck. Gan Ning shook his head, but he turned back to the center without answering, his attention drawn by Huang Gai's booming voice.

"But I think there's someone here who can introduce them much better than I can," the manager continued, sweeping his hand toward the teenagers. "He's been a counselor here for the last four years, ever since he started high school."

The children were growing impatient again, glancing between the waiting counselors as though trying to guess which one Huang Gai was talking about – but to Ling Tong, the words had a much more important meaning. _Ever since he started high school_ meant whichever delinquent it was had been getting in trouble that long, too. Ling Tong wondered momentarily why the kid hadn't been shipped off to Juvie yet, if he was so clearly past the possibility of reform – maybe Camp Wu was just for kids on the last leg of the law.

Huang Gai laughed, raising the bullhorn back to his lips. "Do I have anybody like that here?"

"You've got two of us!" came the answering shout, and at the same time a fist punched into the soft summer air, matching the voice in its playful energy. Without waiting for further summons, a boy stepped out of the crowd and raced toward the managers, dragging another long-haired youth behind him. The two stumbled to a stop at Huang Gai's side, and the louder of the pair accepted the bullhorn with a cheerful grin, turning back to the waiting campers with a pivot that set his chestnut ponytail bouncing across his shoulders.

"Hey, everybody!" the boy shouted, his entire face bright with the warmth of his smile. "How are we doing today?"

The children stirred in their wide group, sharing smiles and whispers as a few offered half-shouts in answer. The youth behind the bullhorn shook his head, sending his fist into the air again as he laughed.

"What kind of an answer is that? I asked how you were! Let me hear everybody say fantasterrific!"

The little girls in the group began to giggle, and the little boys raised their voices in a communal shout, baseball caps bobbing up and down with their excited nods. "Fantasterrific!"

The boy at the bullhorn shook his head again, sharing a look with the young man beside him. Ling Tong could see that the other youth seemed far more settled, and he was watching the proceedings with nothing more than a small smirk, his dark hair trailing in the soft wind.

"I can't hear you guys! Come on – fantasterrific!"

This time the girls joined in, and the children's shout echoed out across the campground, resounding off of the water and the sides of the valley around them. "FANTASTERRIFIC!"

Ling Tong rolled his eyes, but he could see that all of the managers were smiling, his uncle included. The boy with the bullhorn laughed and the sound ricocheted across the group of children, amplified by the megaphone that seemed so natural in his hand.

"That's better! Everybody glad to be here?"

The affirmative yell was almost deafening, and Ling Tong winced, putting an annoyed hand to his head as the leader of the counselors grinned, sending the children in front of him a sharp salute.

"That's what I like to hear! My name's Sun Ce – I like motorcycles and dinosaurs, and I'm a big fan of alien movies! You can all call me T-rex, 'cause I'm king of the hill!"

There was an excited giggle from the body of children, and Sun Ce grinned brighter, flashing the crowd a victory sign. Ling Tong leaned back on his heels to study the young delinquent, frowning to himself. Sun Ce didn't look the way he'd imagined most of the deadbeats his uncle worked with, and he didn't act the way Ling Tong had expected, either. Instead, there was an honest, friendly light in his amber eyes that lit up his face even brighter than the summer sun.

Sun Ce lifted the bullhorn back to his lips, slinging an arm around the shoulders of the boy beside him and ignoring the glare he got for his trouble. "This is my best pal, Zhou Yu. His nickname's Stony, since he doesn't smile much. He's seventeen, just like me – and as far as I can tell, he doesn't like anything."

Ling Tong scoffed, studying Zhou Yu with a slight smirk. That, at least, didn't seem to be far from the truth – though the young man was good-looking, pretty even, he didn't look like the kind of person who'd make entertaining company. The boy grinned at his dark companion and looked out over the sea of children again.

"We're going to be in charge of swimming. We'll also be watching cabins A and B, so the boys in our group can look forward to the best time of all!"

The campers descended into whispers and giggles, and Ling Tong assumed that a few of the kids who had gotten especially fidgety were staying in the cabins indicated. One of the girls near the front of the group raised her hand, and Sun Ce smiled at her, gesturing her to speak. "What is it, kiddo?"

The little girl blushed, looking up at the counselors between her blonde bangs. "I was just wondering why…" Sun Ce put a hand to his ear to indicate she wasn't speaking loud enough, and the child seemed to gather her courage before she resumed in a shout, her cheeks growing redder with every word. "Why isn't Zhou Yu's nickname 'Beauty'?"

A large portion of the children laughed, and Sun Ce snickered as he turned to catch his friend's gaze, one eyebrow raised above his teasing grin. "What do you think, Zhou Yu? Would you answer to Beauty?" The boy shoved his bullhorn up against the dark youth's lips, and Zhou Yu rolled his eyes before answering, his voice deeper than Ling Tong would have guessed from looking at him.

"Only if you'll change your nickname to 'Beast'," the young man intoned flatly, and another communal giggle went through the children, matching Sun Ce's laugh as he made a face at his companion and drew the megaphone back to his own mouth.

"Okay, I guess that's a no – we'll stick with Stony for now." The little girl who had asked ducked her head in embarrassment, and Sun Ce laughed, waving a mollifying hand at her. "Hey, no worries. You'll just have to get used to him – he's got no sense of humor."

Zhou Yu raised an eyebrow but didn't respond, and his friend shook his head, turning back to the children with an infectious grin. "I guess I'll let the other counselors introduce themselves now – Lu Meng, you up first?"

"That brat," mumbled someone in Ling Tong's vicinity, and then the boy in front of him – who was exceptionally tall and more than a little intimidating in his sheer bulk of muscle – slouched toward the front of the group, a ragged ponytail swinging sordidly over his cross shoulders. He left a space in the midst of the counselors, and Ling Tong stepped up to fill it so he could see more clearly – Gan Ning shot him a sideways look, but the drama student chose not to acknowledge it, taking the higher road in an attempt at tolerance that Gan Ning clearly wasn't going to make.

Sun Ce grinned, and he extended the bullhorn to his unenthusiastic companion before he and Zhou Yu ducked out of center stage, leaving the scowling boy with an untrimmed five o'clock shadow at the head of the children. His eyes were black with displeasure as he turned to face them, and a renewed wave of giggles swept through the campers, most of the little girls covering their mouths to hide smiles.

"My name is Lu Meng," the bad-tempered young man announced, the bullhorn amplifying his short tone. "I'm seventeen, and I'm only here because I have to be, so don't go getting the wrong idea about me. I don't even like kids. And I certainly don't have a nickname."

The children whispered amongst themselves at that, and Ling Tong snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. _First-rate student volunteer counselors_ – yeah, right. More like bears that hadn't been allowed to hibernate long enough. Lu Meng dropped a hand onto his hip and glared out at the fidgeting campers, but the effect was ruined as Sun Ce's voice came arcing across the camp in a high shout, a teasing smile back on his face.

"That's not true! His nickname is The Grinch!" The kids laughed out loud, and Lu Meng directed his glower to his fellow counselor instead. Sun Ce only stuck out his tongue in answer. "Don't believe him, either – he's got a heart of gold. You just have to get through all the layers of sour grape first."

"Shut up, Sun Ce," Lu Meng muttered, and Huang Gai clicked his tongue from the line of managers, giving both counselors a sharp look.

"Watch your tongue, Lu Meng. And Sun Ce, stop tormenting him." Sun Ce rolled his eyes and the friendly giant of a manager turned back to the children, his voice loud enough to carry through the campground even without a bullhorn. "Lu Meng will be looking after cabin C, and Taishi Ci will be in cabin D. They'll be teaching wilderness skills. Taishi Ci, will you come up here?"

Another boy near the front of the group moved forward to take the bullhorn, which Lu Meng looked only too happy to relinquish to him. This one was even taller than the three who had gone before him, and his dark brown hair hung down in greasy ringlets to hide his eyes, so long in the back that it was almost a mullet.

Ling Tong wrinkled his nose. He'd never liked that style of hairdo and the baggy clothes that came with it – were the boys who adopted it _trying_ to disappear under their own bad fashion sense? He wondered idly why a few of the counselors at Camp Wu were enormous brutes – Taishi Ci must have been half a foot taller than he was, and though the drama student was built light he was by no means a shrimp. In his mind, it seemed plausible that Taishi Ci had been some head honcho's bodyguard before the police got their hands on him.

"I am Taishi Ci," the young man announced, and there was a note of pride in his voice that defied his knotted hairstyle. He squared his shoulders as he looked out over the children, one hand rising to push his bangs away from arrogant hazel eyes. "I am eighteen years old. Those of you in my group should feel lucky – I have been here two years before, and I am a better hiker than the rest of these counselors put together."

Sun Ce made a face at the confident boy, his hands coming up to perch like reindeer antlers on the top of his head, and Ling Tong raised a skeptical eyebrow. His father had been wrong on every count. Not only was he not going to make any friends at Camp Wu, but the counselors weren't even his age – or at least they didn't act it. Every one of the high schoolers so far had been at least a year older than him, but that unfortunately said nothing about their maturity. How his parents had expected him to get along with a bunch of lawless delinquents in the first place was a question Ling Tong would be putting to the first phone receiver he found in this godforsaken, Smoky-the-Bear establishment…

Sun Ce shouted something unintelligible across the campground, and Taishi Ci scoffed into the bullhorn, rolling his eyes toward the cerulean sky. "Oh, yes. And for reasons that I will not go into, my nickname is Sushi. That's all you need to know." The boy lowered the megaphone from his mouth, and Ling Tong felt his forehead furrowing in unwanted curiosity. It seemed like a weird nickname for someone who looked capable of wrestling mountain lions in his spare time…

"You wanna know why he's called that?"

Ling Tong started, glancing over his shoulder to see that Gan Ning had snuck up behind him while he was watching the introductions. The drama student huffed, stepping back sharply and squashing the cowboy's toes beneath the heel of his tennis shoe.

"Oops – my bad. Sorry about that," he mimicked in a snappish tone, but Gan Ning did not so much as flinch, a superior smile inching across his face.

"No need ta worry, girly – I got my boots on. Didn' even feel it. Not that yeh'd be all that heavy anyway." Ling Tong scowled and turned away, glaring up toward the front of the group with the firm intention of ignoring the boy behind him. Two young girls were accepting the bullhorn now, their arms linked together as the smaller one began to speak in a high, cheerful voice.

"Hi! I'm Xiao Qiao, and this is my sister, Da Qiao!" Her pigtail bounced from side to side as she waved, and Ling Tong got the distinct impression that she could have made a living as a cheerleader, though her sister seemed a little more reserved. Xiao Qiao giggled into the megaphone and winked out at the crowd of children. "You can call me Jelly Bean, and Da Qiao goes by Twix. Everybody likes candy, right?"

Ling Tong scoffed a little, wondering whether the two knew that their nicknames made them sound like pleasure girls. But he was distracted from the introduction by an uncomfortable feeling at the base of his ponytail, and he shoved his elbow back to hit Gan Ning in the gut, earning a grunt of protest from the cowboy who'd been standing decidedly too close.

"Stop breathing on my neck," Ling Tong spat, keeping his voice low so that only the counselors around him could hear. "What's your problem?" Gan Ning rubbed his stomach and glared at him, Xiao Qiao's voice just registering over their whispered confrontation.

"… fourteen and fifteen, and we both like to dance. We'll be taking care of the girls in cabins E and F, and teaching arts and crafts to everybody…"

"Yer the one with the problem," the cowboy answered, straightening back to his full height an inch or two taller than the drama student. "I was jus' telling ya about Taishi Ci. See, he's Japanese, so Sun Ce gave 'im that nickname last year. Made 'im pretty mad at first."

"… hope it's gonna be a lot of fun!"

Ling Tong huffed, refusing to acknowledge that he had in fact been curious about the origin of the title. "I didn't _ask_ for your superior store of knowledge," the drama student shot back, and Gan Ning took a step farther away, his boots scuffing against the dirt as a sandy-haired boy moved forward to take the bullhorn.

"Che. Forget it, brat."

Ling Tong scowled at the insult, but he kept his mouth shut with great effort and turned back to the young man at the head of the group of children. It wouldn't be much longer, and then he could go inside where there was no sun, no insect life, no screaming kids, and no stupid Gan Ning…

"Hello, everyone!" the boy called, and his smile was shy as he brushed his bangs back from his cinnamon eyes. "My name is Lu Xun, and I'll be with the boys in cabin G. I'm sixteen years old… and for some reason everyone calls me Baby Bear, though that's a little embarrassing to admit."

The children giggled amongst themselves, and Ling Tong huffed, studying the timid boy with disparaging eyes. Baby Bear was a fitting nickname for him – the only puzzle was what he was doing with the delinquents of Camp Wu. He looked more like the type to get bullied than to be the one breaking the rules, but apparently there was no judging by appearances when it came to juvies. The two Qiao girls had to be under the thumb of the law, too, though they didn't fit the tough-guy profile he'd expected either…

Lu Xun glanced toward the group of counselors and smiled, raising one hand in a beckoning wave. "I'm going to be teaching everyone horseback riding, along with my friend Gan Ning – come on up!"

Gan Ning chuckled a little and moved through the group of counselors, and Ling Tong slipped sideways to avoid touching him, thanking whatever powers still looked out for a middle-of-nowhere mountain valley that the boy was finally leaving. Gan Ning took a few quick strides to reach Lu Xun's side and then ruffled the other boy's hair, earning a squawk from Lu Xun and a laugh from the campers in front of him.

"Hey, all," Gan Ning began, a full smile breaking over his face once again as he winked at the children and his accent filled the warm air. "The name's Gan Ning – pleased ta mee'tcha. I'm seventeen, and I'll be in cabin H, teachin' horseback riding with Baby Bear here. I like most things, and I ain't from there, but you'all can call me Texas."

The children laughed, but Ling Tong only rolled his eyes at the display of bravado, wondering whether Gan Ning had any idea how stupid he looked when he was trying to be charming. He glanced around at the other counselors and realized there were only a few left – even as he thought it, two more shared a look and then moved toward center stage, as mismatched a pair as had yet crossed the campground.

Ling Tong frowned as he watched them. The boy was clearly young, probably no more than fifteen if he were even that, but the other man couldn't be less than twenty-five, and that was a modest estimate. The drama student crossed his arms over his chest, scowling to himself as he studied the two. So what, they weren't even throwing properly aged criminals in jail now? Were they all going in for summer camp rehab? Perhaps the judicial system was in need of an overhaul. When he got back to school in the fall, he'd write a paper about it for his debate class – that would be a little satisfying, at least.

The young boy accepted the bullhorn from Gan Ning, and he smiled brightly as he gazed out over the crowd, his bright blue eyes more startling for the dark brown hair cropped close to his skull.

"Hey, everybody! I'm Sun Quan, and this is Zhou Tai. We'll be in charge of cabins I and J, as well as teaching all of you to play games." Sun Quan put a hand on his chest for emphasis, ignoring the whispers that were raging like wildfire through the group of children as they stared up at Zhou Tai's colossal height. "My nickname's Captain Kid… and if you're mean like Sun Ce, you can call Zhou Tai Frankenstein. He doesn't really mind."

Sun Ce made a face at the accusation, but he was smiling nonetheless, one arm still draped casually around Zhou Yu's shoulders. Zhou Tai said nothing, and Ling Tong wondered in displaced disgruntlement if the man was mute or possibly carved from stone, leaving the excitable boy at his side to speak for him. But he had little time to wonder, because then the last counselor moved away and left him standing isolated to one side of the children, the summer wind moving softly around him.

The last counselor was a pretty girl about his height, and her auburn hair bounced as she moved to the head of the group, a light smile curving her lips. "Hey, guys! It's great to be back. My name's Shang Xiang, and I've been working here for the last three years… I know my name's pretty hard to say, so just call me Sunshine."

She waved at the little girls in the group before running a hand through her hair, casting a sideways glance at the group of managers as she wrapped up her introduction. "I'm going to be in charge of cabin K, and also teaching everybody about nature, and… well, actually, my partner isn't here."

Ling Tong blinked at the unexpected conclusion, and Han Dang took a step forward, leaving Cheng Pu and Huang Gai behind him with identically furrowed brows. "What?" the manager asked, lowering his voice so that it barely carried as far as Ling Tong. "What do you mean, Shang Xiang? Where's Xing Cai?"

Shang Xiang shrugged, one hand resting at her hip as she leaned back on her heels. "I don't know," she answered simply, a loose shrug rolling through her shoulders. "She never got on the bus. It wasn't my responsibility to find her."

Han Dang bit his lip, and then he turned back to the other managers, his features becoming more grave as soon as he was out of the children's line of sight. Ling Tong couldn't hear his voice, but the drama student could see his mouth moving; years of trying to catch offstage hints for his lines had taught him to read lips, so the lack of sound hardly mattered.

Han Dang was saying, _We have a problem._

End Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

Pairings: Gan Ning/Ling Tong, Shang Xiang/Lu Xun on the side. Everybody else is unspecified… mostly.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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For a long moment, nothing but muddled whispers spread throughout the campground, counselors and campers conversing among themselves as the three managers shared a serious look. Then Han Dang turned back to the sea of children and gave them all a convincing smile, his expression just a little forced at the corners as he lifted the bullhorn back to his lips.

"Well, all right… this will only take a minute to figure out, I'm sure. If I could have all of the counselors come over here, please…"

The group of high schoolers shared a passing glance before ambling their way over to the arc of managers, and Ling Tong followed in their wake, curiosity propelling his feet forward in spite of his disdain. He took up a position behind the two Qiao sisters, and the taller counselors moved into step behind him as well, creating a curtain of bodies that blocked the meeting from the eyes of the schoolchildren.

Instantly Han Dang's smile dropped from his face, curving into a sharp scowl as he glared into the group of delinquent counselors, Sun Ce standing at their head with Zhou Yu beside him. "All right, all of you – where's Xing Cai? What's this about?"

The kids around Ling Tong shifted a little at the question, but only Sun Ce answered, a loose shrug rolling through his shoulders as disinterest fell across his features. "We don't know. She wasn't our problem."

Ling Tong huffed under his breath at the nonchalant answer, but his eyes widened a moment later as Han Dang reached out and snatched the front of Sun Ce's t-shirt, dragging the boy forward a few inches with a sharp glower taking hold of his previously amiable features.

"You—"

One pale hand collided with the manager's forearm, and Han Dang pulled back with a start as Zhou Yu stepped forward from his position, partially blocking Sun Ce with his body and the force of an angry glare.

"Don't touch him," the dark youth snapped, and for an instant as Zhou Yu's hands tightened into fists and Han Dang went rigid in his stance Ling Tong thought that the second rule of Camp Wu – no fighting – was going to be broken before introductions were even over, by the people heading the camp no less. But then Huang Gai cleared his throat and Sun Ce dropped a steadying hand onto his companion's shoulder, drawing Zhou Yu's gaze back to his as the lead counselor gave a short laugh.

"Hey – let's all take it easy, okay? We want to get things off on the right foot this year, don't we?"

Ling Tong swallowed a snort, wondering silently how many of the years had gotten off on the right foot during Sun Ce's tenure at Camp Wu. Despite the boy's peaceable words, there was a sharpness to his blazing amber eyes that made the drama student think he was just as likely to raise his fists as the dark youth beside him… Han Dang sighed and ground his teeth together for a moment, lifting one hand to rub across his forehead.

"This isn't funny, Sun Ce. I'm asking you where Xing Cai is."

Sun Ce shrugged again, standing straighter as his arm slipped around Zhou Yu's neck, though whether for solidarity or to restrain his angry companion Ling Tong couldn't guess. "And I said I don't know. Would I lie to you?"

Han Dang's frown said he wasn't sure how to answer that question, but the girl in front of Ling Tong stepped forward and interrupted before he could make up his mind, wrapping two tiny hands around Sun Ce's arm as she bobbed her head to the side and set her single pigtail swinging.

"Sun Ce's telling the truth, Han Dang. None of us saw her this morning. We all met at the police station to get on the bus, and…" Xiao Qiao shook her head, not looking particularly distressed about the other girl's MIA status as a chipper smile fell over her pretty lips again. "She wasn't there. She hangs out in the Shu district – none of us see her often enough to know where she goes."

"She's probably hanging out with that loser again," Taishi Ci snorted under his breath, drawing the eyes of the managers and his fellow counselors to his derisive smirk as he brushed back his weedy bangs. "Zhao Yun's trying to keep her in summer school… whiny brat."

Ling Tong leaned back on his heels and crossed his arms over his chest, regarding the high schoolers on all sides of him with a disdainful frown as silence overtook their meeting. As it happened, he knew Zhao Yun – the senior was a member of his rival school's basketball team, and a straight-A student as far as Ling Tong had heard. It was typical of delinquents to regard someone who was actually making something of their life as though they were the ones worthy of scorn, instead of the other way around as it should have been…

Da Qiao shuffled a little in her spot, shy hands coming up to grip the edge of her jean vest as she glanced at Taishi Ci and back to the ground before he could catch her look. "Don't speak of Zhao Yun that way," she murmured, one tennis shoe digging into the soil in a nervousness that showed despite her even tone. "He takes good care of Xing Cai. She's been off the streets ever since they started sleeping together…"

Ling Tong's eyebrows shot up at the information, his mind flitting to Zhao Yun as Taishi Ci shook his head and glared contemptuously into the sky. As far as he remembered, Zhao Yun had been a real heartthrob for the girls on both sides of the gym during the basketball game… why somebody who could have his pick of any girl in the city chose one off the street corner was something Ling Tong couldn't understand, and his opinion of the basketball star dropped a few points as he glanced at the high schoolers around him. If this were the kind of company this Xing Cai kept, he couldn't help wondering where the two of them had met, and what on earth they'd managed to have in common.

Han Dang sighed again, rubbing the bridge of his nose before he held up both hands in surrender. "All right, listen – that doesn't matter. We have to decide what to do. We're short one counselor now, and Shang Xiang doesn't have a partner for the nature walks anymore…"

Shang Xiang shrugged, auburn hair slipping over her shoulders with the warmth of the sunlight. "I can handle it on my own. The little girls are good – they never make as much trouble as the boys."

The other counselors nodded absently, but Huang Gai shook his head, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "We can't allow that, Shang Xiang. It's against camp policy." Shang Xiang opened her mouth indignantly, but the giant cut her off, raising a friendly hand as a smile fell across his face. "I know you're trustworthy, my dear. But if one of the girls were to become sick, or to get hurt during an activity, you wouldn't be able to look after the others… besides, there's no reason you should have to watch eight children when everyone else only has four. There must be another option."

Shang Xiang looked somewhat mollified by his explanation, and the boy at Gan Ning's side spoke up, one hand drifting to his smooth chin as the wind splayed sandy bangs across his forehead. "What if we distributed the girls in Xing Cai's cabin between yours and the Qiaos', Sheng– Shang Xiyan—"

Shang Xiang rolled her eyes, smiling as she cuffed the boy on the shoulder. "Sunshine, Baby Bear. Just call me Sunshine, okay? Spare us all a lot of trouble." Lu Xun flushed at her interruption and his own destroyed pronunciation, but Gan Ning laughed and rested an elbow against the shorter boy's head, grinning through his heavy accent as he seconded the motion.

"Hey, that ain't a bad idea, Baby Bear. I always said yer the smartest one in the bunch."

Ling Tong rolled his eyes – he was developing an automatic dislike for every word that came out of Gan Ning's mouth, and he hadn't even known the cowboy an hour. Lu Xun shook off his friend's contact, but he was smiling a little under his blushing cheeks, his cinnamon eyes glancing back to the managers to gauge their reaction. All three men were silent for a moment, their eyes lost in thought, and then at last Cheng Pu spoke up, shaking his head as his kind voice filled the space within their tight circle.

"Well, it's not a bad idea… but I'm afraid it wouldn't work with the bunks. All eight girls would still have to sleep in Shang Xiang's cabins, and the kids can be trouble at night when they get homesick… but thank you, Lu Xun." Lu Xun nodded, his amiable smile unperturbed by the dismissal, and Cheng Pu sighed, running a hand through his closely cropped hair. "We need another solution."

Everyone in the group went silent for a long moment, and Ling Tong swallowed a huff, blowing his soft bangs away from his eyes as the sun burned against his fair skin. Now he wished he'd stayed out of the discussion – it was only getting hotter under the undimming sunlight, and his bags were getting heavy, and he had no way of escaping the oppressive circle of delinquents now, since Lu Meng and Zhou Tai had both taken up position behind him. He thought briefly about making a run for the main lodge, but he didn't know where Cheng Pu's room was and waiting around in the log structure would be even more boring than waiting in the campground—

Then suddenly Sun Ce straightened, and a new light came into his eyes, brightening his grin as he shared an excited look with Zhou Yu. "Hey – what about that kid? That kid Gan Ning was fighting with. Where'd he go?" Ling Tong started at the sudden allusion to himself, and he took a step back as all of the counselors' eyes settled on his surprised face. Sun Ce pointed one finger at him, smiling as the idea lit up his features. "Him! He could take care of the other cabin!"

Ling Tong's jaw dropped, and panic flooded his stomach for a moment as he stared into the boy's hopeful countenance – then he recovered his tongue and let out a harsh negation, two other voices joining his.

"NO!"

Sun Ce stepped back at the force of the syllable, and Ling Tong blinked as he glanced around to see who else had spoken – Cheng Pu and Gan Ning, by the looks of things, and they were both as startled as he. But the drama student beat them to the punch, and without even thinking about it his words spilled into the warm air, barely restrained by his forced whisper and the tight circle of counselors.

"No way!" Ling Tong reiterated, stomping one angry foot against the muffling dirt. "There's no way I'm hanging out with a bunch of screaming, dirty children and all of _you_ for three months! It's bad enough that I have to be up here all summer without having to live in a tiny cabin and take over somebody else's job—"

His words were drawing indignant frowns onto all of the delinquents' faces, and Sun Ce had straightened in his stance, letting go of Zhou Yu's shoulders so that he could pump one arm in what might have been a threat – but before Ling Tong could make the situation worse, Cheng Pu's voice cut in over his, silencing his nephew with a sharp look and a gesture of pleading toward the other counselors.

"Listen, Sun Ce – I appreciate you trying to help us here, but I don't think Tong is the right choice. He's only up here as my guest, and I promised his parents that I'd look out for him while they're in Europe—"

"And you don't think we can look out for him?" Sun Ce interrupted, turning his attention to the mollifying manager. "What's wrong with us? We're not good enough to keep him company?"

Each of the counselors had gone stiff in their stances, and for a moment it looked as though an all-out war was going to break out between the high schoolers and the adults, which concerned Ling Tong mostly because he was stuck between them and likely to get trampled by the giants behind him. But then a hand came down on Sun Ce's arm, and the drama student was surprised to see that it was Gan Ning who had intervened, his expression black with a different kind of disapproval.

"Let it go, T-rex," the cowboy advised in his drawling accent, giving Ling Tong a dark look over one shoulder. "We don' want'im hangin' out with us anyway. He's a real brat of a drama queen, I'm tellin' ya."

Sun Ce shook off the other boy's hand, but before he could retort Han Dang had stepped into the middle of the circle, both hands raised in a gesture of peace. "All right – that's enough. We don't have time for this. Cheng Pu…" The man turned back to face his fellow manager, and Ling Tong's heart sunk at the serious look on his face, accompanied by a small shrug rolling through his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but it looks like we don't have another choice."

Cheng Pu opened his mouth to argue, but after a moment he turned to face his nephew with a very troubled frown, both hands sliding down to rest at his hips as he returned the drama student's glare. "Tong…"

Ling Tong shook his head viciously, his ponytail flying around his head at the undignified movement. "No! I'm not doing it!"

This was beyond unfair. There was no way his uncle expected him to take on a job he hadn't asked for – not to mention didn't deserve, since he'd never put one foot outside of the line in all his life. Why was all of this happening to him? What had he ever done in life to earn so much bad karma piling up on him all at once? Ling Tong ground his hands into fists and met his uncle's stare squarely, glancing around at all of the counselors with a defiant scowl.

"You can stop looking at me that way, because I'm not doing it. End of story. I'm not playing babysitter, and I'm definitely not covering for some street punk just because you guys can't keep track of your friends." The drama student huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring into the cerulean sky to avoid the delinquents' displeased eyes as his acerbic words faded away. He wasn't doing it. He wasn't, wasn't, wasn't…

For a moment, the high schoolers said nothing, glancing between themselves and the managers in collective indecision. Then Sun Ce smirked, snatching the bullhorn out of Han Dang's hands and pushing through the group of counselors until he had revealed himself to the schoolchildren once again, his abrupt movement breaking off their bored whispers and drawing all eyes to his face. The charismatic boy grinned at the campers and reached out to grab Ling Tong's wrist, yanking him forward with an indignant squawk and a short chuckle.

"Okay – sorry about the wait, kids. Let's introduce our last counselor. This is Ling Tong, and he's…" Sun Ce broke off to gauge Ling Tong with a considering eye, his smile bright as the summer sunbeams as he turned back to the campers. "Probably about sixteen. He's gonna be a counselor with Sunshine, so he'll be watching the girls in Cabin L. Everybody say hello!"

The children looked a little unsure, but Ling Tong tore his hand out of the delinquent's grip and glared hard at Sun Ce, his face flushing with fury as he dropped his hands to his hips. "Let go of me! I already said I wouldn't do it."

Sun Ce shrugged, looking out across the muttering campers and giving the drama student a grin. "Too late. You got a nickname, or should I make one up?"

Ling Tong's jaw dropped, and he huffed as he turned back to exchange glances with Cheng Pu, one accusing finger leveled at Sun Ce's head. "Uncle, make him stop—"

"My choice, then," Sun Ce broke in, raising the bullhorn back to his lips and addressing the impatient campers in a cheerful voice. "He's a real drama queen, so we're going to call him Queenie. That okay with all of you?"

Ling Tong felt his cheeks burning yet brighter as he wheeled back to stare at the satisfied delinquent beside him, mortification swallowing any retort he might have given. Laughter broke out between the rows of campers, and Sun Ce's grin only spread as he punched one fist into the air, his chestnut ponytail swinging with the excited movement.

"Now that we've got all that stuff sorted out, it's time to get things rolling. Everybody ready to have some fun?"

His question prompted a near-deafening roar from the excited children, but Ling Tong didn't hear it. He heard nothing but the blood pounding in his ears, turning his face redder and redder with sunburn, anger, and embarrassment.

It was official. Camp Wu was the worst place on earth, and he was going to have the most miserable summer of his entire life.

End Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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In the course of his life, which largely entailed traveling with his parents from one university to another, Ling Tong had seen some pretty shady accommodations. He had even stayed in a few of them, when money was running tight. But Cabin L topped them all – and as the door swung back behind Shang Xiang's amiable hand, the young drama student crossed his arms over his chest and stared staunchly into the dimness, refusing to move forward into the dust-ridden space.

"That's it?" he asked at last, flicking the strands of his ponytail out from under the strap of his bag. "A dirty little wooden hole? There's not even a bathroom."

In fact, there wasn't much at all. There was an unpolished floor of split beams, a ceiling of the same, and the lumpy shapes of five beds, two sets stacked in bunk bed formation and the last standing solo between them. All in all, the cabin looked like it had come straight out of the Boy Scout handbook Ling Tong had owned briefly before quitting the scouts in second grade, and about as inviting as a smokehouse, which might not have been far off if one were judging by the smell.

The drama student couldn't fathom why any child would want to come to a place like this, let alone why their parents would let them. But Shang Xiang only socked him in the arm, rolling her hazel eyes as she moved forward and dropped one of his bags onto the center bed.

"Give it a rest, would you, Queenie?" Ling Tong bristled, reliving again the mortification of the arbitrary nickname that Sun Ce had had the gall to blurt out in front of all the children – but Shang Xiang waved the expression away, sweeping her hand around the cabin's interior. "So it's no penthouse suite – what were you expecting? The outhouses are just around the corner in the woods, anyway."

The mention of outhouses almost made Ling Tong gag, but he bit the emotion back and glared righteously into the side of the wall instead. It wasn't fair. He hadn't been expecting a five-star hotel – he'd just expected a room with his uncle where he could have a little privacy and live out his miserable three months of wasted summer in relative peace. Was that so much to ask? If it weren't for the stupid delinquents screwing everything up and their stupid missing comrade, he could have been relaxing in Cheng Pu's quarters instead of some dreary, sweltering hobby-hole that was probably swarming with termites…

Without warning, Shang Xiang latched onto his arm and began dragging Ling Tong toward the door again, barely giving him a chance to drop his bags before the screen snapped shut behind them. "Hey – where are we going?" the drama student protested, wrenching backward in a failed attempt to free himself from the girl's surprisingly strong clutches.

Shang Xiang shrugged, pulling him toward the main lodge as a smile came over her lips. "The dining hall. Everybody's doing an activity in there now. Don't you want to meet the girls?"

Ling Tong most certainly did _not_ want to meet the girls – he hadn't given it much thought before, since the whole proposal was so odious, but now he realized that he was highly insulted to have been given the girls' cabin anyway. Why should he have to suffer a bunch of giggling, squirming little dolls, when people like Lu Xun got off scott free? The drama student didn't look like a girl, and he _definitely_ didn't act like one, whatever pig-headed Gan Ning said…

But Shang Xiang wasn't privy to his thoughts, and she wasn't minding his dragging feet either, and against his will Ling Tong found himself towed across the campground, stumbling over the rocks and tree roots that were plentiful even in the central clearing. The sunlight flickered against his face as the door to the main lodge swung open in front of them, and for a moment the sudden darkness eclipsed his vision, only Shang Xiang's insistent hand directing him through the hall. Then a second door came open, and Ling Tong found himself bombarded by a tidal wave of light and noise, the sea of schoolchildren spread out before him in restless rows of rickety tables.

The windows had been flung full open, letting the summer sunshine pool across the hastily swept floor, and through its light the drama student could see that the tables were filled with glue, glitter, markers, paint, ribbon, and everything else that might have been found in a kindergarten craft box. The children were bent over the table in furious concentration, each of them armed with one assortment or another of the mess-making craft supplies.

For a moment, Ling Tong couldn't tell what they were doing. Then one of the little girls – the one who had spoken up during Sun Ce's introductions, by the looks of it – broke away from the tables and came running toward him, blushing and twisting a rectangle of thin foam in her gentle hands.

"Um… Mr. Queenie?"

Ling Tong opened his mouth to reply, intent on snapping that Queenie was _not_ his name, nor would he be answering to it, and that the whole camp was run by a terrible conspiracy full bent on giving him the worst summer of his life – but Shang Xiang cut him off, elbowing him hard in the gut as she leaned down to address the little girl.

"What is it, sweetie?" the young woman asked, her tone far more honeyed than her elbow in the drama student's gut had been. "Do you need something?"

The child blushed, glancing up at Ling Tong with bashful eyes curtained by her sunny bangs. "Y-yeah…"

Ling Tong tried to give her a harsh look, rubbing absently at his stomach because Shang Xiang's blow had actually hurt – but apparently the drama student needed to work on his glares, because the girl was unfazed, her smile only growing as she thrust her foam sheet into his already roiling stomach.

"Look what I made, Mr. Queenie! Look! Isn't it pretty?"

Ling Tong swallowed back a heavy sigh and pulled the foam up to where he could see it, studying the excessive glitter and the poorly drawn flowers for a long moment before letters appeared to him out of the markers. "It says… Greta. That's your name?"

Greta blushed again, digging one fist into her jean shorts. "Yeah. I'm in your group. That's why I put your name on the back."

Ling Tong turned the green foam over in his hand, angry heat rising in his cheeks once again as the glittery word "Queenie," augmented by an off-kilter crown, stood out against the soft material. But before the drama student could even begin another internal monologue about the unfairness of the situation that he'd landed in, Greta leaned forward and clutched her arms around his waist, giving him a brief hug before her shyness pulled her back.

"I, uh…" the little girl stammered, her cheeks as red as the glitter on her nametag. "When I grow up, I want to be an actress… T-rex said you're a drama queen, right? So you know about acting?"

Shang Xiang swallowed a laugh at the child's misinterpretation, but Ling Tong drew himself up straighter and put a hand on Greta's shoulder, his wounded pride swirling in his stomach as he returned her gaze.

"As a matter of fact, I do. I'm in the theater program at my high school, and I've been acting since I was five."

Granted, early on it hadn't been real acting – his role as one of the lost boys in Peter Pan had consisted of little more than being tied to a pirate mast. But he wasn't going to let Shang Xiang know that – he was too satisfied with the look of surprise on the young woman's face to relinquish his boast. Shang Xiang stared at him and Greta's eyes became enormous with hope, her hand coming together in a posture of pleading.

"That means… you could teach me? You'll teach me to be an actress?"

Ling Tong wasn't really very fond of children, on a regular basis. But he had to admit that this one was kind of sweet, and her hero-worship complex certainly wasn't hurting. The drama student smiled down at Greta, partly because there was a kind of warmth inside of him that came from her admiration and partly because Shang Xiang still looked so shocked.

"Well, you really need acting classes for that. But I can teach you a couple things, yeah. As long as I have to be here, I guess."

Greta beamed up at him, her pigtails wagging as she snatched her nametag back and pulled it over her head as though in a gesture of her unwavering loyalty. "Thanks, Mr. Queenie! I'll go tell the other girls. We're all over by the window – come find us when you're done with your nametag, okay?"

Without waiting for his answer, the girl skipped off, shooting him and the young woman beside him a backward grin before she slipped back into her seat and began whispering with her friends. Shang Xiang watched them for a moment in silence before she dropped a cheerful hand onto the drama student's shoulder, smiling under her auburn bangs.

"Wow, an actor, huh? Everybody'll want to hear about that."

Ling Tong pulled away from her with a huff, turning his face away in what even he knew had to be a decisive pout. "And why should I talk to any of you? You're the reason I'm in this situation in the first place. Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather talk to the wall."

Ling Tong couldn't see any reason to extend the same courtesies to the counselors as to the innocent children – especially not the counselor who had charged up from his seat and was waving at them, and even more especially not the one at his side, staring across the room through his unkempt cowboy bangs as the first began to shout.

"Hey, Sunshine! Queenie! Get over here already! What's taking you so long?"

Ling Tong colored once more at the undignified nickname, and he glared at the exit, moving forward only when Shang Xiang draped her elbow through his and physically dragged him across the mess room. The young woman wasn't very gentle in her pulling and the drama student found his toes mercilessly stubbed against the feet of the benches three times before they finally reached the counselors' table, an injury that made his expression twice as unhappy and caused Gan Ning to roll his unsympathetic eyes.

"Still poutin', eh, girly?" the cowboy taunted, and Ling Tong huffed in response, sparing Shang Xiang a glare as he was shoved into his seat before defensive eyes came back to Gan Ning's ugly mug.

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm stuck here with _you_ for my entire summer. Don't be surprised if I never smile again."

Ling Tong leaned back in his seat and Gan Ning made a face at him, returning to his nametag without bothering to counter. The drama student could see that 'Texas' was spelled out in big letters with a lasso and cowboy hat augmenting the corners, and he sent his gaze heavenward at the stupidity of the overblown design. Wherever Gan Ning was from, he was definitely overdoing the cowboy motif, and it was just ridiculous. What made Gan Ning think cowboys were so cool in the first place? Cowboys were just unmannered outlaws that hung around in places like Camp Wu…

Ling Tong paused in his mental lecture and shot the boy beside him an ungracious look, studying the unkempt bangs falling into his eyes and the glue and glitter accumulating around his fingers. On the other hand, maybe a cowboy was exactly the right association for someone like Gan Ning.

The drama student felt a sharp nudge from his other side, and he turned to see that Sun Ce, seated directly to his right with enthusiastic elbows flying around him, had accidentally bumped into him in the process of flourishing glitter all over his nametag. Ling Tong rolled his eyes as he watched the lead counselor's focused face, his tongue protruding from one corner of his mouth in heavy concentration, and found that he couldn't help a jab, turning his back on Gan Ning for a moment to insult a different delinquent.

"I didn't take you for the sparkly type, Sun Ce," Ling Tong snipped, crossing his arms over his chest as a vindicated smirk crossed his lips. "I guess I thought your nametag'd be a little more manly than that."

Sun Ce glanced up from the glitter pen he was painstakingly winding between his overabundant ribbons and blinked at the drama student, his features blank for a moment in utter confusion. Then the delinquent grinned and dashed a last few lines onto the nametag and seized it in his glue-abraded fingers, snapping the strap over Ling Tong's neck before the boy could so much as blink.

"First of all," Sun Ce lectured, all of his teeth showing between the contours of his ridiculously pleased lips, "up here, my name's T-rex. Get used to it. And this isn't my nametag – it's yours. I made it for you, since you and Sunshine were taking so long."

Ling Tong gaped at him for a long moment in silence, shocked at the counterattack and the piece of brilliant foam hanging around his neck – then he looked down and his cheeks flushed again, taking on the color of the setting sun as he beheld the jeweled, glittery, absurdly overdone nametag that had been forced onto him, 'Queenie' showing up in almost defiant letters against the bright pink background. Sun Ce snickered and Gan Ning glanced up from his work long enough to share a smile with his partner in crime, flicking his bangs back as he gave Sun Ce a wink.

"Hey – nice work, T-rex. Really suits'im."

Ling Tong glared at Gan Ning and Sun Ce laughed, slinging his arms behind his head in a posture of unaffected victory. "Yeah, well – I've had a lot of practice. I've been making Zhou Yu's nametag ever since we started coming here."

Now that he looked closer, Ling Tong could see that a nametag was also artfully positioned on Sun Ce's other side, unrestrainedly dominating the workspace that presumably would have been Zhou Yu's had the dark youth not had his nose buried in a book. At his companion's boast, Zhou Yu glanced up from the pages long enough to give the overly sparkly foam bearing his nickname a dismissive look before he found Sun Ce's eyes, rejecting the glittery construct with his expression even before his words.

"I'm using mine from last year," Zhou Yu informed his friend flatly, and Sun Ce groaned, one arm slumping over his companion's shoulders in a protest that the dark delinquent ignored.

"No way, Zhou Yu – your nametag from last year was so boring. I hadn't really gotten into the groove yet. This one's way better." Zhou Yu rolled his eyes, shrugging the bright boy's arm away and bracing one hand against the bench as he returned to his reading.

"I prefer it boring, thank you – why don't you focus on your own nametag and leave the rest of us alone."

Sun Ce stuck out his tongue at his unmoved companion, but the expression yielded no response from the stony youth at all and after a moment the lead counselor turned back to his other comrades, shrugging as a smile captured his lips again. "Well, whatever. At least Queenie'll wear his."

Ling Tong huffed, flicking his ponytail defiantly away from his neck as he glared into the upbeat boy's cheerful face. "No, I won't," the drama student snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "Who said you could make mine anyway? I don't remember giving you permission."

Just like these delinquents to take things into their own hands without being asked…

Sun Ce shrugged again, leaning back in his seat and chewing on one end of his crimson hair ribbon. "You didn't have to. You weren't here, so I picked up the slack. I did you a favor, Queenie – you should be thanking me."

"Next time, just don't," Ling Tong shot back, reaching up to pull the nametag off of his neck. But he barely had the lanyard string in hand before a pale arm stretched across the table and soft fingers lighted on his elbow, halting his motion with the simple contact.

"Leave it on," a gentle voice suggested, and Ling Tong glanced up to see that it was Da Qiao who had stopped him, her quiet voice barely audible over the throng of screaming, laughing children around them. "It looks fine. It's not as bad as the one he made for Sushi."

Down the table a short distance, Taishi Ci snorted and flicked his sparkling nametag where it rested against his shirt. Ling Tong was positive that none of the nametags around them could be as bad as his, particularly because his very nickname made it so much worse, but he didn't have a chance to say so before the second Qiao sister spoke up as well.

"I think it suits you, Queenie," Xiao Qiao giggled, her pigtail skipping as she shook with the simple laugh. Her own nametag sparkled in the sunlight as she spoke, jelly beans showing up in sharp relief against the purple foam. "It's cute. I wish I could make one like that."

The girl bounced a little in her seat and Ling Tong wondered if she knew how entirely cutesy she was being, and whether the impression was intentional – though she had an air of innocence, there was also something about Xiao Qiao that suggested she understood the effect of everything she did, as though she were exceptionally conscious of each move her body made. But the drama student didn't know how to ask about it and he was too bothered by other things to dwell on the behavior for long, so he let it slip from his mind and turned back to the company at large as Sun Ce began speaking again.

"Okay – so here's the plan. Tonight we've got the big campfire with all of the kids, and then we've gotta take them back to the cabins. But at midnight, we meet back at the fire pit for our yearly tradition – everybody all right with that?"

Most of the counselors nodded, and Ling Tong felt a frown furrowing his forehead, curiosity he didn't want trickling through his stomach. The drama student delayed speaking as long as he could, but no one seemed eager to explain anything and his interest finally got the better of him, opening his mouth against his will.

"What kind of a tradition is this?" Ling Tong asked, keeping his voice as derisive as possible so that none of the delinquents got the wrong impression about his passing curiosity. It wasn't like he was _that_ eager to know, or anything, but as long as they all had to be sitting at the craft table anyway…

Sun Ce laughed, slinging an unwanted arm around Ling Tong's shoulders and ignoring the way the other boy stiffened under the contact. Ling Tong tried to inch away from the warm arm, but the bright youth was grinning at him too fiercely to let go, all of his teeth showing between the lines of his lips, almost like the great prehistoric predator whose bones decorated his swaying nametag.

"Just you wait and see, Queenie. I think it's safe to say you won't be disappointed."

End Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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Ling Tong wasn't going. There was no way. He just wasn't.

He wasn't going to dignify the other counselors' delinquent attitudes and Sun Ce's dubious leadership by sneaking out of his cabin in the middle of the night, picking his way through stumps and stones and undoubtedly mosquitoes just to get to some smoky campfire when he'd already had so many smores that his stomach felt ready to burst and his eyes were still watering from the earlier assault of the smoke.

It had been hours since the children's campfire ended, after so many camp songs that Ling Tong had seriously considered tearing his ears off and so many stupid jokes that the drama student was tempted to gag every time one of his fellow high schoolers opened their mouths. Not to mention the fact that the entire ordeal had been wondrously unfair – Ling Tong had always heard that smoke followed beauty, which made it seem like one of the Qiao sisters or at least Zhou Yu would be assaulted by the awful smog, but the embers hadn't let him alone for the entire evening, which only made the people around him laugh until Sun Ce tumbled over holding his stomach. Even Cheng Pu had been laughing at him!

Ling Tong huffed a little, rolling onto his side and sending the squeak of straining springs throughout the silent cabin as his rock-hard mattress groaned beneath him. The darkness of the night confronted him on all sides, broken only by the faint light of the stars through the grungy windows and the quiet sounds of his campers breathing in their respective beds. The drama student tried to find their small faces through the pitch blackness, but it was of no avail, and at last he gave up, turning onto his back and pouting hard at the ceiling.

It wasn't that the girls were that bad – he'd finally met all four of them, and they seemed to be sweet like Greta, if a little clingy. It was just that, aside from the girls, everyone else in Camp Wu was miserable scum of the earth and he hated them.

Sun Ce was loud and pushy, and Taishi Ci was arrogant; Lu Meng hadn't said a cheerful thing yet, and the cut of his features made Ling Tong wonder if he ever would. There was nothing particularly _awful_ about Zhou Tai, probably because he wasn't particularly anything at all, and Ling Tong was quickly learning that Zhou Yu was just as cold and unfeeling as his noisy companion was invasive. Sun Shang Xiang was bossy and Lu Xun was timid, which irritated the drama student for a reason he couldn't explain. The Qiaos hadn't done much to bother him personally, sort of like Sun Quan, but they hadn't done anything to really make them worthwhile either…

And Gan Ning. Gan Ning was a stupid, brash cowboy, and he was the worst of all.

Ling Tong exhaled heavily and forced his eyes closed, but he found them flickering open again after a moment and moving to check the indiglo face of his watch. It was 11:56 – the other counselors would already be making their way to the campfire that Taishi Ci had volunteered to stay behind and tend. No doubt Sun Ce would be flashing his idiotic grin at everyone who passed, ticking them off like he'd really been designated leader instead of just being the loudest one among them, and Gan Ning would be tipping his stupid hat like he was the living embodiment of charming chivalry…

Ling Tong snorted under his breath, throwing one arm over his eyes to block the sight of his clock. It didn't matter. He wasn't going. He was tired, and smoky, and he didn't care what ridiculous rituals the delinquents had in mind to perform, let alone not wanting their company for the rest of forever if it could be arranged.

He wasn't going. He wasn't. It was just that… he was a little curious.

Ling Tong pressed himself into the depths of his sleeping bag, trying to force time to pass more quickly with the strength of his mind alone. Once it was past midnight, he'd have no reason to even _think_ of going to the gathering, and he'd be able to sleep in peace at last—

The creaking open of the door denied him that possibility, and Ling Tong sat bolt upright in bed, his heartbeat skyrocketing at the sudden, unexpected noise. For an instant, incoherent images of bears, wolves, and teenage-horror-movie psychopaths shot through his mind, widening his eyes as his body froze against the rigid mattress. Then there was a flashlight in his face and a familiar annoying voice arcing through the darkness, relieving the tension in his stomach and raising his ire at the same time.

"Hey, c'mon, Queenie – yer gonna be late. What're you still doin' in bed?"

Ling Tong bristled, glaring at Gan Ning though he couldn't see the boy for the light burning into his retinas. "Turn that off," the drama student hissed, waving at the flashlight as he pushed himself into a sitting position against his headboard. "Are you trying to wake the girls up?"

The light disappeared instantly, and Ling Tong released a sigh of relief as the painful glow vanished from his wounded eyes. A moment of silence brought the thread of footsteps closer to his bed, and much to the drama student's annoyance Gan Ning plopped into a seat on the edge of his bed, leaning back on hands that brushed the borders of his sleeping bag and made Ling Tong cringe at the prospect of contact.

"Sorry," Gan Ning's disembodied voice whispered out of the darkness. "Didn' mean ta. T-rex sent me to getcha – said he had a feeling you'd be feelin' stubborn."

Ling Tong huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and fixing the other boy with a scowl even though he knew his expression was invisible. "I'm not feeling stubborn," the drama student shot back, kicking at his unwanted visitor as quietly as he could. "I'm just not going. The last thing I want is to spend any more time with all of you. And get off of my bed – you're contaminating it."

Ling Tong made another jab at the cowboy as he said the last, but Gan Ning dodged, his irritating accent filling the formerly peaceful cabin again as his tongue found a retort. "Hey, girly – don' get me wrong. I don' want'cha ta come any more'n you do. But T-rex doesn't take no fer an answer, so yer comin' with me."

Ling Tong felt angry prickles running down his spine at the nickname – even worse that Sun Ce's "Queenie," if that were possible – and he turned to face one of the windows, glaring into the darkness that subsumed his vision. "What is he, your little dictator?" the drama student snapped, barely keeping his voice at a whisper. "How about growing a spine and making your own decisions for once?"

Even through the darkness, Ling Tong could tell that Gan Ning had gone stiff in his seat, likely due to anger that the jab at his friend would have prompted. Ling Tong didn't care. Gan Ning was stupid – all the counselors were stupid, and he wished they could just leave him alone so he could get some sleep—

"I get it."

Ling Tong started at the sudden interjection, but he didn't have a chance to ask what his cowboy companion meant before Gan Ning continued, his smirk almost audible in the blackness.

"Yer scared, aren'tcha? Yer scared of goin' out into the spooky woods."

Ling Tong's jaw dropped in indignation, and he felt his body going rigid as he stared at the space where Gan Ning's rooster-topped head would have been, disbelief swirling in his stomach. Scared? No way. Scared had nothing to do with it. So what if there were ten minutes of dense woods and potential cougar dens between his cabin and the bonfire? So what if they'd all been specifically warned not to go outside after dark? This was about refusing to submit to some high-and-mighty delinquent, not about preserving life and limb…

Gan Ning laughed, and Ling Tong would have hit him if he hadn't been so unsure of where the cowboy's face actually was. Then there was a creak from the protesting springs of the bed and the other boy's foul breath appeared on his face, reeking of burnt marshmallows and smoke as the distasteful young man spoke again.

"Don' worry, girly. I'll protect ya. Wouldn't want'cha ta lose that charmin' head of yours."

Ling Tong scoffed, shoving hard against Gan Ning's shirt and knocking the other boy off of his bed with a satisfying _thump_. "Oh, right. Thanks. That's so reassuring. What are you going to do – talk the wild animals to death with your fake accent?" The drama student pouted as he listened to Gan Ning getting back to his feet, hoping silently that the cowboy had a well-bruised tailbone for his trouble. "And anyway, I'm not scared."

Gan Ning shifted a little, and in his mind's eye Ling Tong could almost see the boy shrugging, his bangs falling into equally messy eyes as took a step backward toward the door. "Oh yeah? Prove it. I dare ya."

Ling Tong stuck his nose in the air, listening as his companion proceeded back toward the creaking screen. He wasn't childish enough to stoop to taking a dare like that, when the whole purpose was clearly just to get a rise out of him. Gan Ning could say whatever he wanted to, and the words didn't mean a thing because the drama student knew his linguistically challenged comrade was just trying to force him into something—

Gan Ning halted with one hand on the doorframe, his silhouette outlined in stars showing through the screen. "Scaredy cat," he taunted, slipping outside as the word dissipated into the darkness.

And despite his resolve, Ling Tong found himself out of the sleeping bag and across the cold floor almost before he'd managed to get his shoes on. Gan Ning was halfway across the central clearing when Ling Tong hit the door of his cabin, and the cowboy looked back long enough to see that he was being pursued before he took off at a full run, his pace pulling Ling Tong into similar speed. Pine needles and clumps of dirt flew up under his unsteady feet, and the drama student panted as he chased after the other boy, his cheeks burning with an embarrassment that he was starting to think might never leave them.

How dare he! That a stupid cowboy like Gan Ning would call him a scaredy cat, when he was so clearly just refusing to acknowledge Sun Ce's self-aggrandizing leadership – all of these delinquents were just too much to tolerate, let alone to make friends with. His parents were so unfair—

They hit the trees at a dead sprint, and Gan Ning abruptly dropped to a walk, losing speed so fast that Ling Tong almost passed him before he caught a neighboring branch and pulled himself to a stop. The cowboy grinned at him through his renewed flashlight, and Ling Tong rolled his eyes, brushing back the loosened strands of his ponytail as he picked his way between tree trunks and rough-hewn stumps.

"Very mature," the drama student snapped, fixing his hair as he dodged a waiting root. Gan Ning just shrugged, a smirk lingering on his lips under the shadow of his nose.

"Yer the one that responded ta it. Which one of us is immature?"

"You are," Ling Tong shot back without pause, tripping as he said it over a lurking stone. The drama student's heart skipped a beat as he stumbled forward, but Gan Ning reached out and slapped an arm across his chest, halting his forward progress before he seriously lost his balance.

"Careful," the cowboy cautioned, his tone cheeky even in the casual warning. Ling Tong straightened and pushed the other boy's arm away from him, startling Gan Ning a little with the contact and the limb expelled violently back into his side.

"Don't touch me," the drama student snipped, trying to regain a little of his dignity as his eyes darted among the forest floors myriad obstacles. "I don't want anything to do with your grimy hands."

Gan Ning scoffed at the dismissal, a measure of disbelief overtaking his expression; then the cowboy shrugged, lengthening his strides so that he was moving ahead of Ling Tong toward the fire that was now showing as an orange spark in the near distance.

"Fine," the boy replied, his tone as cool as the air around them, though not half so pleasant. "Next time, I'll just let the ground get up close n' personal with yer pretty face."

Ling Tong huffed, crossing his arms over his shirt as he tried to keep up with the oscillating light of his companion's flashlight. He couldn't tell if the heat in his cheeks was from Gan Ning's comment or from the heartbeat that was slowly settling down in his chest—but either way, he didn't like it, and his tongue wasted no time in putting his disapproval into words.

"Don't call me pretty," Ling Tong shot after the cowboy moving away in front of him, longer strides outpacing his. "The last thing I want is a compliment from _you_."

Gan Ning laughed, a derisive sound that echoed between the trees as it coursed over his shoulder. "Don' worry, girlie. I didn' mean it."

Ling Tong halted for a moment as the words made their way to his ears, staring at the back of Gan Ning's head as the cowboy moved away and left him in the semi-darkness of the nearby bonfire. For a moment, he couldn't summon a proper response to the dismissive reply – then he decided that a false compliment was even worse than a real one, and he glared hard at the back of the other boy's head, breaking into a jog so that he could reach the realm of the fire's light before the darkness left him at the mercy of more sticks and stones.

Gan Ning was a jerk. A total, complete jerk. What kind of a person would say you were pretty and then take it back? Well, he could add 'lying' and 'rude' to the list of things he hated about the accent-wielding delinquent…

Ling Tong had barely cleared the edge of the trees and stepped into the light of the cheerful fire when all eyes turned to study him, and Lu Meng and Taishi Ci stood suddenly from their seats, heading his direction as Gan Ning found an open place on one of the logs. The drama student took a step back, hesitation flaring in his eyes as the two burly delinquents bore down on him – but a much more concerted effort would have been necessary to actually escape the brutes, who took a rough hold of his arms and hustled him toward the fire.

"Hey! Let me go!" Ling Tong snapped, struggling uselessly in their hold. "What are you—"

"Seize him!" The shout was definitely Sun Ce's, and the drama student looked up to find Camp Wu's intolerable dictator grinning through his laughter, rocking back and forth on his log perch with his ponytail swinging behind him. "Drag him over here! Let's go!"

Taishi Ci and Lu Meng obeyed, moving toward the satisfied youth with their prisoner in tow. Ling Tong opened his mouth to retort, but he gasped as he tripped over a cache of firewood and the words got lost; the drama student stumbled forward, the campfire growing larger in his startled eyes as thoughts of third-degree burns and some horrible hazing ritual wheeled in his mind.

But he needn't have worried about falling into the fire pit, because it would have taken a lot more than one rogue log to break Taishi Ci and Lu Meng's Godzilla-esque grip on his arms. Ling Tong winced as his body jolted in their hold, resenting the hands that were practically breaking his arms with their sheer brute strength, but before he could say anything he'd been dumped onto the ground at Sun Ce's feet, dropped none-too-gently into a tangle of limbs that made the Qiao sisters laugh.

Ling Tong glared hard at the smug delinquent in front of him, wishing that his angry eyes were strong enough to light the boy's shirt on fire. Unfortunately, Sun Ce's clothing remained unharmed, as did the smirking young man who was rubbing one hand against his chin as though in the kind of intense contemplation Ling Tong was pretty sure he wasn't even capable of.

"So…" Sun Ce leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees as he regarded Ling Tong from a scant few inches away as Taishi Ci and Lu Meng retook their seats. "You didn't wanna come to my party, huh, Queenie?"

Ling Tong scoffed, looking away and focusing on Zhou Tai's shoes so that he didn't have to see the grin dominating Sun Ce's infuriating lips. "Not much of a party," the drama student snapped, inspecting his nails to affect an unconcerned pose though the dim light made it impossible to tell whether his hands were dirty or not. "It's just all of you. I don't see why I'd want to waste my time socializing with _this_ crowd when I could be getting some well-earned sleep."

Sun Ce clicked his tongue, smile undimmed despite the response he'd received. "We're gonna have to do something about that attitude of yours, Queenie. I always thought The Grinch here was about as sour a grape as you could get, but you're beating him out every time you open your mouth."

Ling Tong felt himself flushing, and he pulled himself up straighter in festering anger, bracing his hands against the ground as he glared hard at Sun Ce. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want to be here?" he snapped. "That maybe I had other things to do with my summer besides hang around in a dirty place like this with people I don't know and really don't like?"

Ling Tong found that his voice had gotten louder, and though he tried to keep it down, every word falling from his lips seemed stronger than the last. The drama student shook his head, dark hair flashing around his ears like sparking embers from the fire.

"I have friends at home – I have a lot of things I wanted to do with my summer, and now I don't get to because I'm stuck up here with you! The least you could do is leave me alone – I don't want anything to do with any of you! These are going to be the worst three months of my life, and—"

"Quiet."

Ling Tong's mouth snapped shut at the sharp instruction, and his eyes moved to stare at Zhou Yu where the dark youth was seated beside Sun Ce, his obsidian eyes pitiless in the firelight. The drama student felt his jaw dropping at the harsh command, and a thousand indignant words boiled in his stomach and on the tip of his tongue – but Zhou Yu cut him off before he could resume, one pale hand waving toward the campground behind them.

"The managers will hear you. Are you trying to wake the entire camp?"

Ling Tong closed his mouth, but his eyes narrowed as he glared at the ice-cold young man, resentful disbelief boiling in his veins. Whether he had been speaking a little too loudly or not, did Sun Ce's right-hand man really have to be so rude? None of these delinquents seemed to have any manners at all. And Sun Ce had been getting on _his_ case for an acid tongue…

Sun Ce considered the drama student in silence for a moment before a shrug rolled through his shoulders, scattering his chestnut ponytail as his amber eyes glowed in the firelight. "Nah, that's not a good enough story. Sorry – no pity points from me."

Ling Tong gaped at the dismissive ringleader, his affronted eyes widening yet again in his face. But it seemed that no justified response was to leave his mouth as long as the delinquents had their way, because Da Qiao cleared her throat and then slipped out of her seat to take hold of Ling Tong's shoulders, tipping her head to one side as the drama student looked up at her.

"Come sit with Jelly Bean and me, Queenie," the quiet young woman suggested, tossing her chin toward the bouncing girl waving from her position on a tremendous log behind them. "And then maybe T-rex would like to get things going here? We all have to get up pretty early tomorrow, after all."

Ling Tong stared at the pretty girl for a moment before getting to his feet, dusting himself off as he sent glares in Taishi Ci and Lu Meng's direction in thanks for their rough handling. Then he followed Da Qiao back and took a seat beside her sister, stiffening just a little as Xiao Qiao giggled and threw her arms around him in a cutesy hug.

"Yay – Queenie's sitting on our log! Take that, T-rex," the girl teased, sticking out her tongue in the direction of the group's leader. Sun Ce mimicked her expression, reaching down to dig in the plastic bag by his feet as his voice shot back across the fire.

"What do I care? My log's already full anyway."

Ling Tong scoffed under his breath, raising an eyebrow as he studied the log in question. Only Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were using the fallen tree trunk as a bench, and the two were sitting close enough together that the drama student guessed another two people at least could have fit on the wooden seat without anyone even having to touch each other. On the other hand, though, perhaps Sun Ce's ego was big enough to fill the space that remained.

"Okay!" Sun Ce straightened from his bent position and grinned around at the other counselors, a number of indeterminate shapes crowding his lap as he punched one fist into the air. "Let's get this party started!"

The Qiao sisters on either side of him laughed, but Ling Tong only rolled his eyes, wondering what ridiculous things Sun Ce had planned for the gathering and why he'd been dragged—once more against his will—straight into the middle of it.

End Chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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"_Okay!" Sun Ce straightened from his bent position and grinned around at the other counselors, a number of indeterminate shapes crowding his lap as he punched one fist into the air. "Let's get this party started!"_

_The Qiao sisters on either side of him laughed, but Ling Tong only rolled his eyes, wondering what ridiculous things Sun Ce had planned for the gathering and why he'd been dragged—once more against his will—straight into the middle of it._

As his voice died away into the star-studded sky, Sun Ce picked up the first lump from across his knees and tossed it in Lu Xun's direction, the projectile emitting a crinkling sound as it collided with the boy's chest. Ling Tong blinked as a series of similar tosses landed the objects in the laps of the counselors around him, some of them flying straight over the fire to reach high schoolers on the other side of the circle.

Ling Tong tried to get a good look at the indistinct shapes, but they were moving too fast in too many different directions – it wasn't until one of them landed in his arms that he finally realized what they were. The drama student blinked as he turned the lumpy package of mini Kit Kat bars – the kind of thing his parents usually bought to stock the Halloween bucket for neighborhood kids – back and forth in startled hands, his eyebrows drawing together as he glanced up to find Sun Ce's amiable expression.

"What… what's this?" Ling Tong asked, earning a fake grimace from the counselors' leader at his question.

"What, you've never seen candy before? Where were you raised?" Ling Tong opened his mouth to snap back, but Sun Ce's laugh and softening smile stopped him before he could speak, silencing the irritated words with a light shrug. "That's Xing Cai's pack – but since she's not here, they're all yours. Sorry if you don't like Kit Kats, but everybody else has first dibs on theirs."

As he looked around the circle again, the drama student could see that every counselor had a different kind of candy in their lap – Crunch bars for Sun Shang Xiang, Hershey's Kisses for Taishi Ci, a tremendous bag of jelly beans, like her namesake, for the bouncing girl beside him. Xiao Qiao smiled up at Ling Tong through her charming bangs, tilting her head a little to the side as she held out her stash of candy.

"Want some? We all share most of the time – well, not T-rex, but that's just 'cause he's a meanie."

Ling Tong sent Sun Ce a glance, noticing as he did so that the boy was not only guarding his Reese's Cups very carefully between his raised knees but that he also had two packages of candy to everyone else's one. The drama student huffed a little, crossing his arms over his chest as Xiao Qiao popped a few jelly beans into her mouth and Da Qiao dug into her Skittles.

"I guess your selfishness really does know no bounds, Sun Ce," Ling Tong snipped, pulling a Kit Kat bar from his bag as the _de facto_ leader looked up at him with surprise and chocolate clear on his face. "Abusing your power to hoard all of the candy?"

Sun Ce blinked at him in silence for a moment, the brown streaks around his mouth making his startled expression somewhat comical. Then the boy frowned, pointing a vindictive finger at the drama student to his right.

"Okay, listen up, Queenie – three things. First of all, I already told you: up here, my name's T-rex. Secondly—"

"Zhou Yu doesn't call you T-rex," Ling Tong shot back, interrupting the lecture with his observation. "And you don't call him Stony, either."

Sun Ce turned to glance at the youth seated beside him, and Ling Tong took a bite of his Kit Kat, making sure that none of the chocolate ended up smeared all over _his_ face. It was something he'd noticed during the nametag-making activity – despite Sun Ce's insistence on being called by his childish nickname, he and Zhou Yu both neglected to use their camp designations when speaking to each other. Ling Tong had a feeling that Zhou Yu was just bad-tempered enough not to use anyone's nickname, but Sun Ce certainly wasn't – which made him wonder, mostly in annoyance, what made the two of them so special and why he had to follow stupid rules if Zhou Yu didn't.

After a moment of contemplation, Sun Ce shrugged, turning back to his challenger with his frown still in place. "That's different. Anyway, as I was saying: I bought all of this with my own money, so I can have as much of it as I want!"

Ling Tong blinked a little at the pronouncement, and he glanced around at the group, trying to calculate how much money all of the supplies would have cost. He hadn't really given the origins of the candy any thought before – part of him had assumed they came from the managers and the rest just hadn't cared, too preoccupied with everything else. But now that he thought about it, it might not have been a small expenditure for someone of Sun Ce's standing; Ling Tong really had no idea what kind of money the delinquent had at his disposal, but it probably wasn't much, if his ragtag behavior was any indication of the lifestyle he led.

Silence fell between them for a long moment as Ling Tong tried to decide what kind of a response he ought to give, finally settling for a huff and shifting back in his seat. Then Sun Ce's expression fell back into his customary grin, and the young leader leaned forward, resting his chin on knotted hands.

"Besides – I don't have two packages. The Snickers are Zhou Yu's."

Ling Tong couldn't help rolling his eyes at this explanation that was obviously so full of holes that it would have sunk if dropped in the lake somewhere behind them, but Sun Ce only laughed, turning to look at his dark-haired companion and nudging him in the stomach with one elbow.

"Right? Back me up here."

Zhou Yu scoffed, leaning back on both hands as he shook his head. "I don't want them," the youth stated flatly, shooting his comrade a mild glare through bangs made blacker by the firelight. "Though I'm not certain you need them either, judging by the mess you're making of your face."

Sun Ce blinked in blatant lack of comprehension, and Taishi Ci snorted from the other side of the circle, munching on his Hershey's Kisses with such speed that Ling Tong wondered if he were even bothering to unwrap them first. "There's chocolate all over your chin," the burly young man elaborated, brushing back his uncombed locks so that one eye peered out from behind the seaweed-like curtain. "You're seventeen, but no one's taught you how to eat yet?"

Sun Ce made a face, rubbing at his mouth with one hand and only succeeding in smearing the chocolate farther. "Shut up, Sushi," the camp leader retorted, rustling his packages tauntingly. "At least I eat real candy. All you've got are those wimpy little spikes."

Taishi Ci looked as though he would have liked to respond to that, but Zhou Yu's sigh stopped him, drawing the circle's attention back to the dark youth as he licked his thumb and tried largely in vain to remove the chocolate stain from his friend's face. "You are a moron," Zhou Yu informed him flatly, and Sun Ce stuck out his tongue, only succeeding in hampering his companion's cleaning efforts.

Ling Tong scoffed, straightening in his seat as he pulled another Kit Kat open and chewed methodically on the end. He wasn't much of a candy fan most of the time, but there was nothing else to do around the campfire, and as long as he was going to be stuck with this pathetic excuse for company…

Something smacked him in the side of the head, and the drama student let out a slight gasp, nearly choking on his candy bar as his eyes darted around him for the source and finally settled on a pack of Sweet Tarts resting at his foot. Ling Tong's eyes narrowed, and he looked up to glare into the eyes of the smirking cowboy a few seats down from him, an entire pile of the carnival-colored candy packets resting in his lap.

"Have a couple, girly," Gan Ning suggested, tipping back his head with a smile that seemed to say the whole world was one big joke and he was determined to make Ling Tong the butt end of it. "Maybe they'd help with that lovely attitude o'yers."

The drama student wondered if his cheeks were flushing or if it were just the heat of the fire. He could feel the eyes of the other counselors on him, but he was determined to give as good as he got, and aloud he only scoffed, picking up the Sweet Tarts and weighing them in his hand for a moment before he reached into his own bag.

"You're too kind, Gan Ning. Allow me to demonstrate my undying appreciation."

As the last word left his mouth, Ling Tong hurled a Kit Kat in the cowboy's direction, a spark of triumph stirring in his stomach as the orange bar smacked Gan Ning right between the eyes. But the elation only lasted for a moment, because before the drama student could even open his mouth to follow the assault with a verbal jab there were a plethora of packets flying at his face again, and Ling Tong found he had no option but to duck, feeling the passing sting of plastic on his arms as he bent low to avoid the missiles.

"Hey!" Ling Tong shouted, but he doubted his protest had been heard over the laughter flying from the mouths of the people around him and the louder shout – Sun Ce's – that split the campfire's peaceful crackling and soared away under the intensifying pressure of candy on his skin.

"Candy fight!"

Ling Tong would have liked to tell the delinquents' ringleader exactly how childish he found this behavior and how little he wanted welts all over his arms, but as he straightened up to do so he found a handful of jelly beans shoved into his mouth, the intermingling tastes surprising him and almost knocking the Kit Kats from his lap.

Xiao Qiao giggled at him and waved her bag in pale fingers, and then a Crunch bar hit him in the head, and before he knew it Ling Tong found that he was throwing Kit Kats again, this time at everyone. The air around him was a cloud of mismatched candy, most of the objects landing on or around the high schoolers though a few tumbled into the fire and caused brief flares.

Through the haze of unusual projectiles, Ling Tong could see that almost everyone had joined the fight – even Lu Meng, who was viciously fighting off Gan Ning's attempt to shove a handful of Sweet Tarts down his friend's shirt. Taishi Ci and Sun Ce had become embroiled in a heavy conflict, apparently pitting Reese's Cups and Hershey's Kisses against one another in an ongoing war for supremacy, and Zhou Yu was watching them with an unimpressed expression, though to Ling Tong it looked as though a tiny smile was pulling on his lips. Da and Xiao Qiao's arms took turns snaking across the drama student in order to push their respective candies into each other's mouths, and Lu Xun had simply ducked down to hide his head, apparently no match for the tidal wave of candy flying around him.

Only Zhou Tai and Sun Quan remained quiet, sitting motionless on the opposite side of the circle without joining in. Ling Tong tried to place the expression on Sun Quan's youthful face, so different from the smile he had worn earlier, but the fight distracted him and his attention slipped away from them again, focusing on chucking another Kit Kat at Gan Ning's head.

In a matter of minutes, the contest was over, stalemated when each of the counselors found their bags empty and their laps full of enemy candy. Ling Tong sat back on his log to find that he was breathing harder than he'd expected, the adrenaline of the impromptu contest slowly fading from his veins – and as he looked around the circle, he could see that his companions were in approximately similar straits, though some of them were wearing brilliant smiles as well.

Sun Ce's was particularly dazzling in the firelight, and he laughed as he pushed skewed bangs out of his eyes, giving a whoop that earned him a glare from Zhou Yu as the sound echoed around them.

"All right! Now _that_ was fun!"

Ling Tong rolled his eyes as he reached up to fix his ponytail, scoffing before he retrieved a Snickers bar from the ground and waved it in front of him. "Looks like you _do_ share, after all," the drama student taunted, earning himself a childish expression from the other boy.

"And here you were saying I'm selfish," Sun Ce replied, crossing his arms over his chest. But his tone mellowed after a moment and the youth let out another laugh, reaching down to gather some of the far-flung candy into his lap. "Well, at least there are plenty of spoils…"

There was a brief silence as each of the high schoolers collected what of the candy they could reach, and then Sun Ce gave a heavy sigh and slumped to the ground beside his log, leaning back into the wood and stretching his arms up as though he were trying to catch the stars.

"Yeah, this is always a blast."

Ling Tong had been separating his candy into piles by type, carefully setting aside Lu Meng's Lemonheads because he'd never liked sour things, but he paused at the other boy's words, glancing up to find the fire's shadows dancing all over Sun Ce's smile. The drama student considered their leader for a moment, and then he huffed under his breath, raising an eyebrow though the motion was likely invisible in the darkness.

"So… what exactly is the 'tradition' that goes on here?" Ling Tong asked at last, trying to keep his voice contemptuous though curiosity was stirring in his stomach. Sun Ce grinned, gesturing toward the fire with his empty hand as the other pulled open a Hershey's Kiss.

"We make all the newbies walk through the coals," the young leader announced, a tyrant's smirk settling over his lips. "Ready to give it a go, Queenie?"

Ling Tong rolled his eyes, wondering how Cheng Pu and the other managers could justify having such immature counselors running their summer camp. But before he could come up with a snappy return, a voice from the other side of the circle beat him to it, the words audible despite their mild muffling.

"Stop it, Sun Ce. Stop being so mean."

Ling Tong blinked a little at the unexpected defense, and he looked around for the speaker, his eyes finally setting on Sun Quan's turned back. The boy had pressed his face into Zhou Tai's shirt and was refusing to look out at the other counselors, one of the older man's arms wrapped around his shoulders, and from his posture Ling Tong could see that the fifteen-year-old was curled inward, his arms crossed over his chest as though he were protecting himself.

The bright and cheerful attitude that had characterized the boy's introduction was long gone, and as he looked at the huddled child Ling Tong could hardly believe he was the same person – had it not been for the stony figure at his side, they'd have had nearly nothing in common.

Sun Quan's voice put a halt to all conversation around the circle, and Sun Ce regarded the boy in silence for a moment before he frowned a little, slinging his arms behind his head and leaning into them like a cushion.

"Jeez… way to spoil my fun, Captain Kid. Eat some of your M&Ms and cheer up already, would ya?"

Sun Quan made no response except to bury farther into Zhou Tai's embrace, but the stoic guardian beside him sent Sun Ce a sharp look, an expression that seemed even more severe on his older face. But Sun Ce ignored the glare and turned back to Ling Tong with a slight shrug, a vague smile coming over his lips as he nudged a rogue candy bar with his foot.

"Actually, this is pretty much it. Han Dang doesn't let us have any candy up here, so we go wild one last time before camp really starts… we've never had the fight before, though." Sun Ce put a thoughtful hand to his chin and then laughed, kicking a Sweet Tart packet in the drama student's direction. "That one was all you."

Ling Tong huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring hard at Gan Ning where the other boy was helping himself to Lu Xun's licorice. "He started it," Ling Tong accused, earning himself a smirk from the cowboy in question and a hopeless expression from Lu Meng at his side.

"Hey, no fair, girly – I may've started it, but it was yer Kit Kat that really got things goin'."

Ling Tong tried to decide whether the statement was worth responding to or whether it would be more effective to simply pretend Gan Ning's comments were as empty of volume as they were of substance. But before he could make up his mind Sun Ce was speaking again, making the drama student wonder if all of the delinquents around him made a point of talking when they'd be sure to interrupt somebody.

"Anyway, I thought we'd add something else to it this year – just for you, Queenie." Ling Tong raised an eyebrow, brushing back his ponytail as his gaze left the infuriating cowboy and returned to their doubtful leadership.

"Oh? What's that?" he asked, keeping his voice as uninterested as he could make it. He didn't want to give Sun Ce the impression that he was eager to be friends, or even that he was willing to lend an ear to whatever the little dictator had to say, but everything the other boy did seemed to be a surprise and he couldn't help wondering…

Sun Ce grinned, leaning back and stretching his arms out across the top of the log so that his back was nearly as curved as his lips. "I think we'd better do a second round of introductions. Admit it – you're curious how we all got here, aren't you? I would be, if I were you."

Ling Tong blinked, startled by the other boy's insight and easygoing smile. He hadn't actually given the crimes his delinquent companions were serving time for all that much thought; except in the cases of people who really didn't belong, like the Qiao sisters and Lu Xun, the drama student basically just assumed that all of the counselors were generic teenage offenses. They certainly looked capable of graffiti and property damage – Sun Ce especially. Ling Tong could just picture the young dictator scrawling his name on some overhang as he dangled upside down by his ankles…

Before Ling Tong could decide what kind of a response to give, Sun Ce had already volunteered to start, leaning forward and pointing over one shoulder at his dark companion as his unstoppable grin slipped back in place.

"Me and Zhou Yu, we're in a gang. We've got the whole north suburb marked off as our territory." Sun Ce laughed, slinging unconcerned arms behind his head and staring up at the stars as though visualizing his words in the ebony sky. "Yep – you just wait and see, Queenie. I'm gonna unite all the gangs in the city someday. Wouldn't that be cool?"

Ling Tong felt his mouth hanging open a little as he stared at Sun Ce, more surprised than he wanted to admit by the declaration. Of course, he hadn't expected the other boy to stay inside of the law any more than he could help it, but still… a gang was more violent than the drama student had been expecting, especially considering how personable (if annoying) Sun Ce seemed to be. In a way, it was hard to picture him at the head of a pack of bald wrestler-types, throwing his fists around in the city's alleyways…

In other ways, it wasn't. Somehow, that was more disconcerting.

"How long have you been doing that?" Ling Tong asked after a long moment, finding his voice under the pretense of unwrapping one of Gan Ning's stupid Sweet Tart packages. He considered chucking the sugar disks at the cowboy's head, but Sun Ce was speaking again and the drama student was interested enough in what he had to say that he settled for putting them in his mouth instead.

"Since we were thirteen," Sun Ce answered proudly, tipping his head back so that he could look at the silent youth behind him. "Right? We were both on the streets anyway. Not like there was a whole lot else to do."

Now Ling Tong understood what Huang Gai had meant when he said Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had been coming to Camp Wu since they first started high school – or, in all likelihood, since they _hadn't_ started high school. As they'd been returning every year, that probably meant they hadn't stopped getting into trouble – or getting caught, either. And if they were seventeen now, then the next time they ended up in the hands of the law…

Ling Tong opened his mouth to say as much, but something about the look Zhou Yu was giving him stopped the words on the tip of his tongue, pushing thoughts of trials and handcuffs and real prison back down his throat. The other boy's eyes were completely black, hard as ice, and they sent a shiver down Ling Tong's back that he couldn't explain, directing his eyes down to the campfire so that he didn't have to look at Zhou Yu anymore. If he'd just been judging by their faces, the drama student wouldn't have guessed Zhou Yu for a gang member, either. But if he were going by their eyes…

Ignorant of the interaction taking place above his head, Sun Ce laughed and picked up an escaping Snickers bar from the ground, throwing it at Taishi Ci with a toss that barely escaped the highest flames of the bonfire.

"Your turn, Sushi," the boy announced, and Taishi Ci rolled his eyes, shoving back again the bangs that Ling Tong almost wanted to volunteer to cut for him, just to get them out of that irritating style. The drama student shook himself to push the memory of Zhou Yu's frigid stare away and focused on Taishi Ci instead, the firelight casting almost jack-o'-lantern shadows over the tall youth's face.

"Bodyguard duty for a drug runner," Taishi Ci answered shortly, surprising Ling Tong yet again with the severity of his infraction. The powerful young man snorted, giving the circle a derisive smile as he put another Hershey's Kiss into his mouth. "Next time, I'll pick one who's a little smarter. Idiot tried to drive home drunk… cops got lucky picking us up."

Ling Tong knew that his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn't find the strength of jaw to close it. He'd been starting to believe that maybe there was more to these delinquents than their criminal records, but none of them were even sorry about what they'd done, and all of them were eager to do so again. Had he really stumbled into the place where the dregs of society went to ponder their next crimes? Why was his uncle taking all of these kids to Camp Wu instead of just throwing them in jail? Sure, they were still young, but…

Taishi Ci tossed the Snickers bar to Sun Shang Xiang, and the young woman brushed back her auburn locks before smiling somewhat sheepishly in Ling Tong's direction. "I got in a fight at school," she explained, shrugging her lithe shoulders as though the incident were already in the far-distant past. "I probably shouldn't have hit her… I go to an all-girls school, and they're really strict about stuff like that. But she was teasing me about my shirt, and I got really sick of it, you know?"

Ling Tong made a mental note to leave Sun Shang Xiang's clothing considerations out of his insults – which didn't seem like it would be that hard, since the girl alone among her companions had a decent sense of what went together in an outfit. Somehow, fighting was pretty much what he'd expected of Sun Shang Xiang, though not for such an insufficient reason – Ling Tong supposed she wasn't quite as bad as the others, if fairly petty.

The Snickers bar next landed in Sun Quan's lap, disappearing into the folds of his shirt with a soft _plop_ – but the boy didn't even raise his head, and Zhou Tai made no motion to speak, staring out across the gathering with eyes as stern as slate. After a moment of suspended silence, Sun Shang Xiang sighed and picked up the thread of explanation again, gesturing to the huddled figures with one hand.

"You'll have to forgive Captain Kid, Queenie. He's bipolar." Ling Tong's eyes widened at the information, and Sun Shang Xiang nodded to him, scuffing the dirt with her foot. "He's got a really bad case, and the medication just makes him worse. So he doesn't take it most of the time. He was up this morning, but he's down now."

Ling Tong studied the boy in silence, rendered speechless for once in his life at the unexpected information. It hadn't occurred to him that any of the delinquents might really have problems – especially not problems like that. A spark of pity went through the drama student's stomach, but it was followed almost immediately by a spark of righteous anger, for once directed less at the counselors than their supervisors.

Wasn't it irresponsible of Camp Wu's managers to let someone emotionally unstable work as a counselor with little kids? The more stories he got, the less Ling Tong understood why his uncle bothered organizing this camp at all…

As though reading his mind, Lu Xun piped up from the other side of the fire, one forefinger drawing spirals in the dirt. "Huang Gai works as a child psychiatrist most of the year… he likes Sun Quan to come up here so he can spend some time with the other kids."

Lu Xun shot the silent pair a glance, but his shy eyes returned to Ling Tong's face after only a moment, Zhou Tai's stoic façade apparently more than his nerves could handle. "Zhou Tai's his cousin. He's the only one who makes Sun Quan feel better most of the time; that's why he comes up during the summer, too. I know it doesn't seem like it, but Sun Quan's really happier up here than he normally is…"

Lu Xun trailed off, and Ling Tong was left wondering what 'happy' meant for Sun Quan on a regular basis, if this were better than usual.

End Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

A/N: The italicized section at the very end is Gan Ning's thoughts – I have a lot of trouble writing relationships from an uke's perspective, so I'll have to switch to Gan Ning's mind a few times over the course of the story. I hope that isn't too confusing. Oh, and sorry about the long wait between updates.

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_Lu Xun shot the silent pair a glance, but his shy eyes returned to Ling Tong's face after only a moment, Zhou Tai's stoic façade apparently more than his nerves could handle. "Zhou Tai's his cousin. He's the only one who makes Sun Quan feel better most of the time; that's why he comes up during the summer, too. I know it doesn't seem like it, but Sun Quan's really happier up here than he normally is…"_

_Lu Xun trailed off, and Ling Tong was left wondering what 'happy' meant for Sun Quan on a regular basis, if this were better than usual._

The silence reigned unchallenged for a long moment, and then Gan Ning sat back from the fire and cocked his ankles out at full angles, the tiny movement drawing all eyes to his easygoing face.

"How 'bout you go next, Baby Bear?" the boy suggested, and Ling Tong found that whatever understanding he'd been cultivating for the counselors around him vanished under the reminder of that irritating accent and the boy behind it. Gan Ning's lips split into a weak grin, the expression brightening somewhat as he punched Lu Xun in the shoulder. "Yeh've got a pretty funny story, don' you?"

Lu Xun flushed at the question, and Ling Tong found himself interested despite his best intentions, leaning forward on the log a little to get a better look at Lu Xun's bashful face. Lu Xun was one of the high schoolers the drama student actually was curious about – despite the fact that he hung out with Gan Ning, which could only lead to trouble, the boy looked too shy and… well, weak… to make a good criminal.

But then again, most of Camp Wu's counselors weren't exactly perfect matches to his mental image of juvenile delinquents.

Lu Xun pushed Gan Ning's hand away from ruffling his hair, but his flush stayed in place, matching the drooped position of his head as he curled one arm around his knees. "I… I was late to orchestra practice, and my friend Jiang Wei offered to give me a ride on his bike. I know two people riding's illegal in the city, but I was really late, and…"

The boy trailed off, his face awash with mortification, and Ling Tong blinked, sitting up straighter as Lu Xun's voice died away into the darkness. "You mean, they sent you here for riding double on a bike?" he asked, unable to keep the incredulity out of his voice.

Was there no rhyme or reason to the people working at Camp Wu at all? It seemed like his uncle and the other managers had taken the best and the worst of city teens and dumped them all into the same melting pot with a bunch of screaming school kids – how was that supposed to help anything?

But Lu Xun shook his head a little, staying quiet with obvious mortification as Gan Ning laughed. "Nah, that ain't all. See, the cops was gonna jus' let 'im go, since he didn' have a record er nothin'. But Baby Bear's Pop got hold o'the charge, an' he got hella mad – right, Baby Bear?"

Lu Xun nodded dejectedly, covering his face with his hands in obvious shame. "He was so angry. He said he couldn't believe any son of his would be so irresponsible with the law – and he wanted to make sure I learned my lesson. So he convinced Cheng Pu to let me come work here for the summer." The boy curled in on himself yet farther, until all Ling Tong could discern through the depths of the darkness was a vague shape and a muffled, mortified voice. "I was so embarrassed…"

Gan Ning just laughed again, as did Sun Ce, but Sun Shang Xiang put a mollifying hand on Lu Xun's back and rubbed her palm in a circle, soothing the young man with her cheerful voice as well. "Look on the bright side, Baby Bear. At least you don't have to see him for three months, right?"

Ling Tong couldn't tell if Lu Xun's blush had gotten brighter at the girl's mollification or if it was just some irregularity of the light, but the boy nodded and the matter seemed to be closed, a finality emphasized when Lu Xun tossed a nearby Kit Kat bar into Lu Meng's lap.

"Your turn," Lu Xun suggested softly, and Lu Meng snorted, brushing back his bangs with an air of sour disdain that even Taishi Ci hadn't managed.

"There isn't much to tell. I'm here for drug possession. Weed." Lu Meng looked straight at the drama student as he said it, not bothering to soften the assertion at all, and crossed his arms over his chest in a pose of sober defiance.

Ling Tong wrinkled his nose. He hated drugs and everything that came with them – especially the smell, which never seemed to leave the dirty little stairway alcoves in his high school where druggies and other worthless members of the school congregated to share their meaningless existences between skipped classes. Most of those kids were easily identifiable by the black hoodies and strange piercings that covered ever surface of their skin – in that respect, at least, Lu Meng didn't exactly look the part. But then again, nearly every story was proving to Ling Tong that judging by appearances only misled him.

The sour counselor chucked the Kit Kat at Xiao Qiao without any warning, and Ling Tong flinched as the object suddenly registered in his field of vision – but the girl beside him caught it handily and clicked her tongue, one lithe arm resting crooked at her hip. "Now, now, Grinch," Xiao Qiao lectured, giggling despite herself as she waved her finger at the older boy. "You're not telling the whole story. That's not fair."

Lu Meng glared at her, though the look seemed to have little effect on the bouncing young woman and her cheerfully swinging feet. From the other side of the circle, Sun Ce laughed and threw a pinecone at the reluctant bear glowering at all of them, his naturally pessimistic face growing more shadowed with every taunt from his fellow counselors.

"Yeah, Grinch. Tell him how you just did it as a favor to your grandma." Lu Meng threw a packet of Lemonheads at the leader to shut him up, but Sun Ce dodged easily, grinning like a demon as he turned to face the drama student and pressed back into the log like an arching cat. "His grandma had arthritis and she wanted weed for the pain. So the Grinch here bought it at school… never told the cops why he had it, either."

Lu Meng's face was growing more displeased by the moment, but that didn't stop Gan Ning from getting in a last jab, carefully ducking as the nearby high schooler swung at him. "Aw… ain't that sweet. Guess there really is a heart o'gold under that big bad mood, huh?"

"Drop it," Lu Meng snapped, his voice harsh enough that if the order had been coming from Zhou Yu or Zhou Tai, Ling Tong had a feeling he might have been intimidated. But now that he knew Lu Meng was just an overtoasted marshmallow – a little crusty on the surface, but still gooey once you got to the inside – there just wasn't anything frightening about the bear of a delinquent.

Despite himself, Ling Tong found that he was laughing at Gan Ning's taunt, a sound that drew the eyes of everyone in the circle to his momentarily amused face. The counselors blinked at him for a moment, and then Sun Ce cackled, elbowing Zhou Yu in the shin and leaning back to look up at his friend with a smug smile.

"Hey, look! Turns out he can laugh after all! D'you believe it?"

Zhou Yu only rolled his eyes, but Ling Tong huffed, trying to swallow back his amusement so that it didn't emerge again. There wasn't anything wrong with laughing – at home, he laughed all the time. But the last thing he wanted to do was give these people the impression that he was ready to be friends, because he definitely wasn't…

Xiao Qiao was spinning the Kit Kat bar in her open palm, and after a moment Lu Meng cast her a sideways glance, his sour features failing to put a dent in the overwhelming cheer of her youthful face. "Well?" the displeased bear growled, leaning back on his log as though to remove himself from the situation altogether. "Isn't it your turn?"

Da and Xiao Qiao shot each other a glance, and then the younger girl broke into a brilliant smile, bouncing up and down in her seat and slapping both hands against her knees. "Oh! Oh! Let me tell it, Da – okay?"

Ling Tong wondered if he would ever get used to Xiao Qiao's insatiable energy – it seemed like no matter what the girl was doing, she had to cheerlead the process along as though she'd really been holding pom-poms. Nonetheless, the Qiaos' story was the other one the drama student had been interested to hear, and he glanced between the two of them in the ensuing silence, one expression so composed that it seemed like a complete inversion of the other's excitement.

Da Qiao had a funny little smile on her face; it took Ling Tong a moment to notice the quiet change in the girl's expression, shading from absent to slightly sad in what seemed like a heartbeat.

As he looked around the circle again, the drama student realized that it wasn't just her, either: Shang Xiang had rested her chin on both hands as though in intense concentration, and the boys had become silent, Gan Ning and Lu Meng sharing a glance through the warmth of the firelight. Even Sun Ce had gone quiet; he was still smiling, but it was a half-smile that was more like Da Qiao's than his usual expression, as soft as his head resting against Zhou Yu's knee.

As he looked around at them all, Ling Tong felt a sense of foreboding creeping up in his stomach – what could the Qiao sisters' story be about that was horrible enough to silence even Sun Ce? But he had no time to get a disclaimer, because Xiao Qiao's tongue was already off and running, her cheerful fidgeting the only motion in the darkness.

"Okay, so it's like this." Xiao Qiao leaned forward until her face was only inches from his, and Ling Tong found himself almost nose to nose with the pretty girl. "Well, Da and I used to live in India. Our parents work with the government over there – Daddy's a really big military man, so we had to stay in lockdown all the time. It was really crazy."

Ling Tong stared at Xiao Qiao with his mouth open, trying to comprehend the words coming out of her excited mouth and put them into some sensical framework. India? The girl didn't look Indian, and her sister didn't either – and the drama student couldn't quite decide how to interpret the tiny smiles on the faces of the people around him.

Xiao Qiao ignored his silence, pressing on with her energetic tale and clenching both of Ling Tong's hands in hers to make certain she had his attention. "But then, Da and I were at this festival one day, and we got kidnapped!"

Ling Tong started, his eyes widening at the story's sudden turn. "K-kidnapped?" he stuttered, and Xiao Qiao nodded hard, wringing her hands as her eyes grew yet more excited.

"Yep – kidnapped, 'cause they wanted to blackmail Daddy. They took us all the way to Africa, too. It was so scary. They put us on this huge boat, and we were all tied up so that we couldn't get away."

Xiao Qiao's eyes became dark for a moment as she bit her lip, and Ling Tong almost imagined that he could see memories of the journey reflected in her face. As he watched the firelight shadows swirling over her features, Da Qiao rose quietly from her seat and moved to stand behind her sister, only drawing the cheerful hazel eyes to her for a moment before Xiao Qiao's story tumbled back into the night air.

"But then, these FBI agents brought down the boat for gun-smuggling. That was scary, too – everyone was running around with their guns out. And they saved us and brought us back to the United States, and now we're hiding out here until Daddy can come get us. They should be here in a couple weeks."

The young woman finished with a giggle, and she leaned back in her seat, watching Ling Tong's uncertain face with a patient smile. The drama student could only stare, thoughts of international prisoners and gun-wielding FBI agents circling his brain. Her story couldn't be _true_… could it? His uncle wouldn't have made counselors out of international refugees… right?

But before Ling Tong could decide what to make of the most amazing story he'd heard so far that night, Da Qiao spared him the trouble; the older girl leaned down and wrapped her arms around her sister, holding her tight as one hand came up to cover Xiao Qiao's mouth as though in enforcement of her silence.

"Please forgive my sister," Da Qiao murmured, her voice so low that the crackling of the fire almost swallowed it. "She's a pathological liar."

Ling Tong started at the information, and his eyes became very wide, staring between the Qiao sisters' faces as though searching for an explanation in either expression. Xiao Qiao was still smiling, but her smile looked a little sad to the drama student, and she turned to hide her face in Da Qiao's neck, leaning into the embrace almost as though she'd been expecting it.

From the other side of the fire, Sun Ce sighed, stretching above his head as his pensive smile dissolved. "I don't know," the boy announced, looking up at Zhou Yu with a thoughtful frown. "I think I still like the one about the Mexican border patrol better."

Zhou Yu said nothing, but Gan Ning nodded from across the circle and leaned back on his hands, his unkempt hair dangling in his eyes. "Yeah," the cowboy conceded, "that one was pretty good. Had some o'the facts wrong, though. My favorite's the river boat deal."

Ling Tong looked between them for a moment in silence before he found his voice, tone harsh like the furrows spreading across his forehead as he folded his arms over his chest.

"How can you make fun of something like that?" the drama student demanded, glaring at Gan Ning and Sun Ce in turn. "Don't either of you understand that it's a serious problem? And how could you not tell me ahead of time – I almost believed her!" Were Camp Wu's counselors _trying_ to embarrass him every chance they got?

Gan Ning and Sun Ce only blinked at the once-more irritated drama student, and Ling Tong felt his frown deepening as he turned to look back at the Qiao sisters, still as statues in their place beside him. Again annoyance and confusion were swirling in his stomach – had Cheng Pu looked into these delinquents' backgrounds _at all_ before he slated them for counsellorship? These weren't the kind of people who could take care of kids; these people needed to be taken care of themselves.

With a sort of sigh, Da Qiao began to speak again, brushing her sister's bangs back behind one ear and resting her chin on the younger girl's head. "Our parents died in a car crash when we were nine. We had some relatives out east, but we didn't want to live with them. So we ran away." The girl exhaled quietly and closed her eyes, her face growing still. "We've been working on the streets ever since."

Ling Tong shifted in his seat, a sting of uneasiness sliding down his spine. "What do you mean… working on the streets?" the drama student asked.

Da Qiao's eyes came open again, deep and motionless like still water as she returned his uncertain stare. "I mean we're prostitutes," the girl replied without inflection, leaning into her sister's back as though she were protecting Xiao Qiao with her thin arms. "We mostly just do lap dances, though."

Ling Tong's jaw dropped a little, and he felt himself paling as he watched the two girls in the light of the crackling fire, their eyes whispering together in an exchange of simple secrets. When he'd first listened to Xiao Qiao's introduction earlier that day, the drama student's first thought had been that the girl's cutesy attitude was a little more flirtatious than was normal for a fourteen-year-old, but he hadn't imagined that she and her sister were actually…

Why was it that every person around the circle seemed to need so much more help than a summer camp could give them?

Silence had fallen across the group again, but it was broken as Xiao Qiao pulled her sister's hand away from her mouth and smiled at the overwhelmed drama student, laughing more quietly than before but laughing nonetheless.

"It's okay, Queenie – you don't have to look like that. It's not so bad." The girl reached out and grabbed Ling Tong's hand, squeezing it between her two smaller ones as she tipped her head to the side. "Besides, we get three months off now, right? That's why this camp's is going to be so much fun!"

Ling Tong found that, once again, he'd been left without anything to say. He wondered what Zhang He and Ma Chao, his acting buddies and two people who were continually claiming that nothing on earth was strong enough to shut him up, would have said if they'd been there to witness his useless tongue.

After a long moment had passed without Ling Tong responding, Xiao Qiao drew back and fiddled with the relay Kit Kat bar, studying the orange brick with idle fingers before tossing it abruptly to Gan Ning.

"Your turn!" the girl announced in a sudden, energetic shout, squirming so badly that Da Qiao had to laugh and release her or risk losing her balance. Gan Ning chuckled at the candy bar landing harmlessly in his lap, which he picked up and began to roll back and forth between his tanned palms, shooting Xiao Qiao a characteristic wink.

"Sure you wanna give up the spotlight already, Jelly Bean?" the cowboy asked, his cocky accent rolling through the gathering and shaking Ling Tong from his effective paralysis. Xiao Qiao giggled, digging one foot into the soil and nodding so hard her neck looked in danger of snapping.

"Yep. And you're the last one, so hurry up, 'kay? We should all get at least a little sleep tonight." Gan Ning nodded his understanding, twirling the Kit Kat bar in a circle as he considered his words in silence.

Ling Tong had to speak. He had to do something to break himself out of the weight of uncertainty that was clouding his mind – all of the delinquents' stories were getting lost in his brain, chasing each other and his concept of right and wrong around in circles until he wasn't at all sure what was what anymore. He needed to get back on his feet, and this might be his last chance before all of the counselors trooped off to bed.

Fortunately, Gan Ning's contemplative stare was giving him an opportunity to dissolve the uncertainty swirling in his stomach. Ling Tong leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest with summoned unconcern, scoffing a little as the acid for which his words were so well-known reached his tongue again.

"Oh, this should be good," the drama student remarked, drawing Gan Ning's eyes to his face at the derisive statement. "Let's have it – what'd _you_ get caught doing? Lassoing little kids for practice?"

Gan Ning had been just opening his mouth to speak when the jab flew from the drama student's lips, but he hesitated and closed it again instead of answering, his gaze so intense that Ling Tong began to feel uncomfortable in spite of how many years he'd had to get used to being scolded for his tongue. Then at last the cowboy shrugged, tipping his hat down so that it hid his eyes in a wealth of shadow.

"Nah… y'know, I don' really feel like it. Let's jus' skip my story."

Ling Tong blinked, staring at the other boy in complete incomprehension as a ripple of surprise went through the high schoolers around him and the Qiao sisters shared a long look. Then the drama student huffed, his forehead furrowing in time to the pout coming over his face. He hadn't thought that one little comment was going to make Gan Ning act like such a baby…

"What do you mean?" Ling Tong demanded, dropping both hands to rest at his waist. "You can't do that."

Gan Ning just smirked at him, though the expression seemed more vindictive than amused. "Sure I can, girly. Yer a brat n' I don' wanna tell you. Don' see why you care – you don' like me anyway, right?"

The young man's offhand reply earned a series of chuckles from the counselors ringing the fire, and Ling Tong felt his face growing hot, though he doubted it was from the slowly dying flames.

It was true – he didn't like Gan Ning. And he shouldn't have cared. He shouldn't have cared at all that the stupid cowboy was going to withhold a story that probably wasn't even half as interesting as the ones Ling Tong had already heard. But nonetheless, the drama student couldn't deny that his new rival's refusal really, really bugged him, as did the story he was missing. Now, more than ever, Ling Tong wanted to know…

Gan Ning snickered a little under the brim of his hat, one eye peering out at Ling Tong's flushed face as he drummed his hands aimlessly against his knees. "Maybe if you begged me," the cowboy teased, leaning back on one casual palm.

All at once, the drama student remembered what it was he hated so much about Gan Ning – well, everything, but especially how good the other boy seemed to be at embarrassing him. Ling Tong scowled, glaring away into the darkness as his voice shot into automatic comeback mode. Whoever raised Gan Ning should have been downright ashamed of his nonexistent manners—

"You wish, jerk," the drama student snapped, crushing a packet of Sweet Tarts with his irritated foot. "I swear I'll bite my own tongue off before I ever beg you for anything."

Gan Ning gave a low whistle. "Not a promise I'd make without thinkin' 'bout it first," the cowboy drawled, earning a nod of approval from Da Qiao at the sensible precaution. But Ling Tong didn't care. He hated Gan Ning. He hated Gan Ning down to the very marrow of his bones, and that was one thing that he swore was never going to change, no matter what.

xxx

_Che. Whiny brat. Don't look at me like that – like you deserved somethin' more than you got. I never promised you anything._

_I don't know what I did to make you loathe me like this. I don't feel like I did anything worth that stare you're givin' me, like I crawled outta some pit from hell just to dirty your air._

_I guess the feeling's mutual – summer's my vacation. This camp is my vacation. Why'd you have to go and poke your spoiled nose into the only thing I've been lookin' forward to for months?_

_You can glare at me all you like – just like a spoiled little girl. Do your worst. But I'm not entrusting my story to someone like you._

End Chapter 7


	8. Chapter 8

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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For a whole week after the campfire session, Ling Tong managed to avoid his fellow counselors.

Well, _avoid_ was unfortunately a bit of a relative term. The Qiao sisters were in charge of serving food in the cafeteria, and as Sun Shang Xiang was his cabin neighbor and group co-leader, there was no getting away from her at all. He couldn't really boast that he'd put much effort into dodging Zhou Tai and Sun Quan, as the two mainly kept to themselves. And Lu Xun, despite his association with a certain irritating cowboy, was proving to be nothing but marshmallow fluff on the inside; the drama student hadn't really felt it necessary to scare the hesitant young man off, even though he'd decided to have nothing whatsoever to do with Camp Wu's resident delinquents.

Of course, Taishi Ci and Lu Meng weren't interested in group activities in the first place, because they were just as rudely antisocial as some of the others were bothersome. And there was simply no avoiding Sun Ce or the silent shadow that dogged his steps, since the fiery little dictator of Camp Wu had to poke his nose into every single thing that went on across the grounds, as though the campground were his own personal empire and the campers his loyal subjects.

Ling Tong would have liked to send Sun Ce a few snappish words about exactly what he thought of the other boy's leadership qualities, not to mention his attitude in general and his extremely unjustified ego complex. But as the drama student was making a big deal of giving the sunshine youth the cold shoulder, he couldn't exactly break his self-imposed silence for a deserved jab, despite how badly he wanted to do just that. Sun Ce had largely ignored him, too, only sending Ling Tong the occasional smirking glance that was so much worse than his words would have been…

So in all honesty, when it came to avoidance, Ling Tong had to admit he was outright failing. But he had managed so far to stay completely out of Gan Ning's way, and he was counting that as a victory that more than made up for his other defeats.

Ling Tong sighed to himself and worked his way slowly back down the ladder that was leaning against the roof of his cabin, no doubt precarious and doomed to send him to the ground at any moment. The drama student kept his eyes firmly on the wooden steps, because something about the ground fifteen feet below made his stomach just a little uncomfortable.

No, the drama student wasn't afraid of heights. If he had been, he'd have forced one of the other counselors to retrieve the boys' lost baseball from its perch among the ancient shingles. Sun Ce, maybe – perhaps a fall would have done wonders for his swollen head.

So it wasn't fear churning in the place beneath his ribs. It was just that one could never be too careful, and he doubted that anyone at Camp Wu had been tending these splinter-infested ladders as well as they should have been…

"Hey, Queenie!"

Ling Tong felt his eyebrow twitch as the nickname soared up to greet his ears, and he turned around to glare down into Sun Ce's cheerful amber eyes, carefully ignoring the ground beneath his irritating comrade and the distance still between them.

"Leave me alone," the drama student spat, waving the recovered baseball as high as he dared without letting go of the ladder's leg. "Look – I'm doing something camp-oriented and helpful. So why don't you just take your big mouth elsewhere and get off of my case?"

With a careful _swish_, Ling Tong moved his right foot down a step, losing contact with the other boy's eyes as he turned his full attention back to the descent. Even without looking, though, he could imagine the full, cocky smile that accompanied Sun Ce's laugh and his low whistle.

"Sheesh… somebody's in a bad mood. That time of the month again?"

Ling Tong felt his cheeks burning at the jab, and he raised the baseball as though he were going to peg the other boy in the head, earning another laugh and two surrendering hands from his annoying comrade.

Sun Ce sniggered, rubbing one hand across his mouth in a thoroughly satisfied motion. "Don't worry, Queenie, I'm not here to bother you – Zhou Yu and I are taking the kids down to the lake anyway. It's just that Cheng Pu's up at the lodge, and he told me to send you his way if I saw you."

Ling Tong grimaced a little, wondering what his uncle wanted and why the man had to want him _now_, of all times. "Fine, fine – I'm coming," the drama student shot back, descending a few more rungs as quickly as he dared. "Excuse me for not structuring my life around his whims."

Ling Tong swallowed a small sigh as his feet touched the ground once more, and he turned to toss the baseball into the waiting campers' hands, earning a grin and a jumble of escaping feet in return for his tiresome fetch. Sun Ce shook his head as he watched the boys running off through the sparse trees of the campground's borders, and the counselor's smile was almost surprised, though it had lost none of its usual arrogance.

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. What's the matter, Queenie? Not having a good time?"

Ling Tong was not even going to dignify that with an answer. Instead, he turned on heel and headed toward the main lodge at a determined pace, trying not to think about whether he were actually performing a pouty strut and whether Sun Ce were laughing at him from the safety of the summer shade.

_Not having a good time?_

The drama student kicked a pinecone and sent it skittering off into the local bushes, glaring hard at the flagpole at the wooden lodge doors beyond it. A good time? How was he supposed to be having a good time? He was trapped in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of selfish, unmannered delinquents whose collective goal seemed to be nothing short of his ridicule, and every minute he didn't have to spend with them was almost worse for the company of the elementary-school campers that thronged everywhere like a Biblical flood. Okay, so maybe the girls in his group were a _little_ bit cute, but still…

"Tong!"

Ling Tong turned at the call of his first name, raising one hand to block the sun as he stared across the central clearing toward a waving figure. Cheng Pu increased his pace to a light jog, and in a matter of moments he was at his nephew's side, one muscled arm slung around the boy's shoulders.

"There you are," his uncle added with a smile, looking far too carefree for having spent a whole week with screaming kids and troublesome counselors. Cheng Pu winked and led Ling Tong around the exterior of the lodge, heading for the back door with loud, even footsteps. "There's a surprise for us in the kitchen. Come on – I'm not sharing with anyone else."

Ling Tong was sorely tempted to inform his uncle that the surprise had better be worth a week of torment worthy of the lowest level of hell, and that nothing short of a ticket back home would suffice – but he was already through the rear door of the cafeteria, and the thought that whatever it was would be enjoyed by none of the other counselors was enough to keep the drama student's mouth shut, though he'd never been very good at that. Instead of speaking, he let the lodge's minimal air conditioning swallow him and chill the drops of sweat resting against his forehead from his long climb, the darkness and silence of the kitchen refreshing after the burning sun outside.

Cheng Pu moved easily to the massive box freezer against the opposite wall and emerged from its off-white body holding two green popsicles, a smile that Ling Tong would have deemed almost goofy on anyone else's face curving his lips upward. "Come on, kiddo – have a seat. Talk to me for a little while."

Cheng Pu slid into a sitting position on the top of the central cooking table, and with an inaudible sigh Ling Tong followed suit, accepting the popsicle from his uncle's waiting hand despite the fact that he didn't – and never had – liked popsicles, and was just about as interested in a catch-up chat as a bath in the mud. But either his face wasn't reading his mind well enough to form helpful expressions or Cheng Pu was just choosing not to see them, because the manager shot him another smile and took a bite of his popsicle, an action that made Ling Tong shiver just watching it.

"So…" Cheng Pu began between bites of his unnaturally green ice confection. "Tell me about things. How are you getting along with the other kids?"

Ling Tong scoffed, openly this time, and chewed sullenly on his popsicle, wondering exactly what flavor the tasteless mass of green was supposed to represent. "Getting along?" the drama student huffed. "You make it sound like that's possible. How am I supposed to get along with a bunch of jerks who can't even follow a couple simple laws?" More than a couple, really: fighting, illegal drugs, tandem cycling…

Cheng Pu stiffened in his seat, and for a moment the kitchen went quiet, the gentle slip of water through the pipes the only sound between them. Then the manager relaxed his shoulders and one hand came up to rub his forehead, his well-worn fingers tracing patterns in his brown skin.

"They told you their stories, I take it."

Ling Tong shrugged a little, one arm resting around his raised knees as he shook his head and set his ponytail swaying over one shoulder. "I don't get it, Uncle. They're… I mean, some of them aren't so bad, but…" The drama student looked up and found Cheng Pu's deep brown eyes, a sincere frown furrowing his forehead. "Sun Quan's bipolar? Xiao Qiao's a pathological liar? And if Sun Ce and Zhou Yu have been here four years already, then…"

Cheng Pu's gaze had found the well-worn floor of the shadowed kitchen, and his eyes traced the pattern of the linoleum in unrelenting lines, following each blue accent as though it led to something more important than the next square. Ling Tong shook his head again, his voice growing louder as the uncertainty he'd held inside him for a long week hardened into questions that had been circling his brain ever since the campfire.

"What are they doing here, Uncle? All of these people – why did you bring them here? I know you just want to help, but…"

Ling Tong broke off for a moment, then pressed his lips into a hard line and flung his popsicle into the trash, watching Cheng Pu's face as the green missile landed among lunch scraps and crumpled paper towels.

"Don't you think…" Ling Tong felt his hands forming fists against the tabletop, nails uncut for too long digging into his palm. "Don't you think there are some people who can't be saved?"

The line of Cheng Pu's jaw hardened, and outside a soft breeze tapped the arm of a nearby pine tree against the window, its needles making small scratching noises as though a hundred tiny pins were running over the surface of the glass. Those aside, nothing moved and not a sound reached the drama student's ears but the echoes of his own disappearing voice, fading into the heavy walls like ripples through murky water.

Ling Tong shifted in the silence, and the hum of the activating air conditioner made him jump, breaking the spell of motionlessness that anticipation had brought down on his pale limbs. But still Cheng Pu said nothing, and his eyes did not move from the scuffed surface of the floor, more disconcerting for their stillness than the angriest glare would have been.

Now the drama student wished he hadn't said anything at all – not because he regretted it, or because he'd changed his mind, but because his uncle was one of those people who could hold his silence forever, and Ling Tong was really not in the mood for this. Since Cheng Pu had dragged all of the renegade counselors up to Camp Wu in the first place, there was a good chance that he didn't want to hear about their faults – his uncle was like that sometimes, especially with things he cared about…

But in the end, Cheng Pu only let out a deep sigh, and then a soft smile worked its way across his lips, lightening the gruff expression that seemed so natural on his rough-hewn features. The tall manager exhaled, and as the sound died away he put one arm around his nephew's back again, never losing his slight smile or the chuckle falling from his lips.

"You don't understand yet, Tong…"

Ling Tong blinked, caught off guard by the unhurried words and the simple tone that surrounded them. Cheng Pu shook his head a little, the motion ricocheting through his nephew through their joined shoulders.

"You don't understand. All of these kids… they're all here because they have something to learn. Something I think a place like this can teach them. Something that…" Cheng Pu's free hand drummed against the tabletop, sending shivers down the drama student's spine with its light vibrations. "Something that could change their whole lives."

"What do you mean?" Ling Tong asked, straightening despite himself so he could catch his uncle's eyes. As far as he could tell, what the delinquents really needed to learn was some manners and a little common sense, not to mention respect for society and its regulations – wouldn't it have been better to just send them all to finishing school? But Cheng Pu just chuckled, ruffling the drama student's ponytail with callused fingers.

"They told you their stories, didn't they?" Ling Tong's nod deepened the older man's smile. "Well, take Lu Xun for example. He hardly needs a lesson about obeying the law, does he? Why do you think I brought him here?"

Ling Tong huffed, crossing both arms over his chest as a frown swallowed his expression. "I don't know. It's his father who needs a wake-up call – he sounds like a real jerk. Why didn't you call child services or something? Why's Lu Xun getting punished again?"

Cheng Pu shook his head. "He isn't, Tong. I can't fix Lu Xun's father – for him, as for most adults, it's too late to change. But I can help Lu Xun in another way."

Ling Tong blinked, and Cheng Pu smiled at him, one large hand slipping back to rest on the drama student's shoulder.

"I brought Lu Xun here so that he can be away from his father for a while. I'm hoping he'll learn to have enough confidence in himself that he can stand up to his father someday, when the time comes."

Ling Tong stared at his uncle with his mouth slightly open, trying to understand the unexpected information he'd been given. When he'd first heard about Camp Wu, the drama student had assumed that its main purpose was just to get the trash of society out of everyone else's way for the summer – an impression that had only been reinforced after his first meeting with the delinquent counselors. But the idea that Camp Wu was intended more for the delinquents' sakes than for society's…

Cheng Pu smiled at his nephew's silence, his explanation continuing despite the boy's lack of response. "It's the same with the others. Shang Xiang needs to learn that there are other ways to express your feelings than using your fists… I'm hoping the little girls will help her do that. Da and Xiao Qiao… I want them to realize that they can be loved – that they are loved – for more than their bodies. Sun Quan needs a stable environment that will accept him for who he is. Lu Meng needs to understand that the world isn't out to get him – that he can ask for help once in a while without getting that shoved back in his face."

Ling Tong felt his forehead furrowing, confusion lighting his brown eyes. "And you think… you think they can teach each other that? Give each other that kind of help?" From what he'd heard of the cutthroat jabs that colored the counselors' conversations, it didn't seem like communal support was high on anyone's list.

Cheng Pu chuckled, scratching his ear with one uncertain hand. "I don't know. I hope so. I'm not sure whether they'll form a family or not. But I have to try, Tong. These kids…" The manager shook his head, and there was a tiredness tempering his eyes that Ling Tong had never seen before, as though his uncle were staring into some unreadable truth at the end of the world. "They're nothing but trouble, and I know it. But I love them anyway, despite the grief it's gotten me."

Cheng Pu smiled at his nephew, and Ling Tong turned away, unwilling to see the generosity and sacrifice lingering in the lines of his uncle's brow. For a long moment, silence overtook them, filling the air where their words had been and pulsing in and out between the two men's breaths. Then Ling Tong adjusted his posture and cast Cheng Pu a short look over one shoulder, judging the weight of his question before it left his lips.

"So… what is it that you want to teach Sun Ce and Zhou Yu?"

Cheng Pu started slightly, but the drama student held himself steady, leaning forward on his hands as his flat tone filtered through the still air. He really was curious, despite his haughty reply, but he didn't want Cheng Pu to think he was actually taking this whole 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine' thing seriously – especially not when so many selfish delinquents were involved. Gan Ning alone was probably enough to break the chain…

"Sun Ce and… Zhou Yu?" Cheng Pu's forehead had furrowed, and his tanned face seemed older for the temporary wrinkles. "What do you mean?"

Ling Tong huffed under his breath, flipping errant strands of his ponytail away from his softly sweating neck. "Well, they've been here four years already, right? And they keep coming back each year anyway. It doesn't seem like they're learning anything to me."

Cheng Pu considered a moment in silence, and then the manager shook his head, smiling although the expression looked a little forced to his waiting nephew. "Well, I suppose… I suppose that's just an example of foolish stubbornness. They've been under my jurisdiction since middle school, and you're probably right that there's no changing their ways now, but…"

Ling Tong sat back in his seat, leaning against one palm as a slight scowl overtook his smooth features. He'd never taken his uncle for the sappy type before – usually Cheng Pu toed the line and toed it hard. It was more than a little annoying that someone as bossy and insufferable as Sun Ce would get special favor from his normally strict uncle, considering the trouble that practically dripped off of the counselors' little dictator…

"When I first met those two, they were barely thirteen… we found them living behind a pile of garbage cans in the south quarter of town." Ling Tong started a little, glancing back to his uncle as Cheng Pu put one thoughtful hand against his mouth, lost in the weave of his story. "They were fighters – always have been. Sun Ce bit me when we were dragging him into the Child Services truck, and Zhou Yu broke my partner's jaw trying to get free. I can still hear them cursing as we drove off."

Ling Tong was not at all sure why a memory like that – likely though it seemed for the young tyrant that Sun Ce had grown into – would bring a gleam of nostalgia to his uncle's eyes, but it certainly had, and Cheng Pu's smile was continuing to widen, growing more genuine with every word that left his lips.

"I had a hell of a time convincing the judge to let me bring them up here – he wanted to slap them in a foster home first and Juvenile Hall second, especially after all of the colorful words Sun Ce came up with during their hearing." Cheng Pu chuckled, holding back his smile with one unsuccessful hand. "I've never heard insults like that before or since…"

Ling Tong was surprised and a little affronted to realize that his uncle was laughing – outright laughing. Why? Didn't Cheng Pu have any sense of shame – shouldn't he have stood up for the judge, who was at least a worthwhile member of society, instead of a couple of ragged kids? What was wrong with his uncle?

But Cheng Pu didn't seem to notice his nephew's indignant reaction – he went right on talking, swallowing his amusement and tightening his hold around the boy's shoulders as though nostalgia had collapsed him around the waist.

"Every year, it's been harder to convince the justice system that there's really any value in bringing them up here. They're with you, Tong – they don't see the point. But for me…" Cheng Pu sighed, and his expression became a little sad, one soothing hand moving across his temples. "Every time I look at them, I see those kids again, like I did the first time. Fierce, and angry, and so frightened… there may be no hope for them, but I can't give up. Not until time really runs out."

Something about the words sent a shiver down Ling Tong's back, and he looked away from his uncle's face, trying to drown the odd sensation in the tasteless linoleum. It didn't mean anything – it didn't. It was just that, for the first time, the drama student had found himself wondering if maybe – _maybe­_ – a refusal to give up was what it took to be a good civil service worker like his uncle…

But there was one gaping hole in Ling Tong's understanding of the whole thing, and he had to ask – he had to fill that blind spot before it drove him crazy.

"And… Gan Ning?" Cheng Pu blinked, and Ling Tong dropped both hands to his hips, avoiding his uncle's curious stare as his back stiffened unintentionally and his tone adopted a falsely uninterested air. "What are you trying to teach him?"

Manners, courtesy, proper speech… the drama student could think of half a dozen things that might make good lessons for his least favorite counselor, especially if they were applied via a crowbar to the head. But Cheng Pu only laughed, leaning closer to his nephew with a teasing smile that reminded Ling Tong all too much of the delinquents running his camp.

"Hm… he didn't tell you his story, did he?"

Ling Tong's mouth fell open for a moment, astonishment at the uncanny guess radiating over his face. Then the surly drama student turned away and glared at the cafeteria door, his scowl deepening just slightly as he kicked the table leg beneath him.

"No. He didn't."

Cheng Pu raised an eyebrow, rubbing curious fingers over his stubble as a twinkling smile settled into his eyes. "And why would he withhold something like that?"

Ling Tong swung his feet back and forth, holding back a blush at the memory of the countless spats he and the moronic cowboy had gotten into – some of which, though none the drama student's fault, _might_ have been part of the reason Gan Ning acted so difficult at the counselors' bonfire a week before.

"Because he's a jerk," the boy shot back, his restless body setting his ponytail swaying over one tense shoulder. Cheng Pu laughed again, a deeper laugh this time that went all the way down to his diaphragm.

"Is he? Well, I'm certainly sorry to hear that. And here I thought he was one of the nicer ones."

Nicer ones? What was wrong with his uncle's judgment lately? Ling Tong bit down on his lower lip, determined not to pout despite the expression he had a feeling his face was already worming its way into. Gan Ning wouldn't even be 'one of the nicer ones' if he were swimming in a pool of piranhas…

Cheng Pu leaned toward his nephew, keeping his smile under wraps with a composure that Ling Tong guessed decades of court appearances had given him. "I won't tell you his story, Tong. It isn't mine to tell."

The drama student slumped, glaring hard at the floor and swinging his feet even more viciously through the still air. What was the point of having an all-knowing uncle if he wasn't willing to share information with you, anyway? Now it seemed like he'd never get the story unless he went to Gan Ning and crawled around in a begging pose for a good six days, and that was simply not going to happen.

But not knowing was driving Ling Tong crazy, one curious brain cell at a time… it looked like his sanity was just one more price he had to pay for spending time around that infuriating co-counselor.

Life wasn't fair.

Cheng Pu watched his nephew without speaking for a minute, and then he patted the boy on the shoulder, standing up from his position with a long stretch and a longer sigh as he sent Ling Tong a shallow wink. "I won't tell you his story, because it's not mine to tell. But I will tell you that I brought him here because he has to learn the most difficult lesson of all."

Ling Tong blinked, straightening in his seat in spite of his disappointment. "What do you mean? What lesson's that?"

Cheng Pu smiled, rubbing a thoughtful hand through his short hair. "That only he is in control of his destiny, and that the people around him have no power unless he gives it to them himself."

Ling Tong stared at his uncle, fighting to understand the words and the careful smile lingering on Cheng Pu's lips. But long before he could reach outburst-level frustration and tell the manager exactly what he thought of cryptic riddles, the door burst open and the object of their conversation burst into the room, his unruly hair tangled all across his eyes.

"Cheng Pu! Trouble!"

Gan Ning's voice was harsh, and he was out of breath, his chest heaving with visible exertion. The man in question blinked and his nephew rose from his seat, and Ling Tong felt sparks of uncertainty skimming down his back, triggered as much by the cowboy's tone as by the dead seriousness resting in his eyes.

"What is it, Gan Ning?" Cheng Pu asked, taking a few steps toward the counselor and pulling Ling Tong with his shadow. "What's the matter?"

Gan Ning shook his head, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and into openly worried eyes.

"It's Lu Xun. He's been hurt. And I think it's really bad. Please – he needs your help right away."

End Chapter 8


	9. Chapter 9

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

A/N: This chapter update took a long time. I apologize for the wait, and hope it will be briefer in the future.

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_Gan Ning shook his head, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and into openly worried eyes._

"_It's Lu Xun. He's been hurt. And I think it's really bad. Please – he needs your help right away."_

Ling Tong felt a cold spike slide down his spine, his feet freezing to the floor with the older boy's words. Hurt? Lu Xun? What had happened? Hadn't he and Gan Ning been out on their afternoon horseback ride with the little boys? Thousands of questions clouded his mind and forced his limbs unnaturally still, useless at his side as he stared into Gan Ning's dark, unyielding eyes.

But Cheng Pu was all composure, and he moved toward the door with nothing more than a nod, brushing past Gan Ning as one large hand flitted down to the panting boy's shoulder. "Thank you. Take me to him."

Gan Ning nodded, his eyes wide as though he too had been caught off guard by the manager's decisive calmness – but then he was gone, and Ling Tong found himself standing alone in the kitchen, nothing but the echoes of their retreating footsteps filling the space around him.

For a long moment, Ling Tong could hardly think straight – his mind was a jumble of confusion, along with another emotion that felt a little like fear… why? He wasn't in any danger himself. He didn't care about the other counselors. Not even Lu Xun, who'd been nothing but respectful the whole time and was almost too sweet to the people around him—

Ling Tong shut off his brain and began to run, bursting through the kitchen door and out into the sweltering air with adrenaline pumping through his legs. He could see Cheng Pu and Gan Ning jogging up ahead, and it wasn't long until he caught up to them, the anxious buzz that had already infiltrated the entire camp pushing him even faster.

Gan Ning glanced at the drama student as he skidded to their side and dropped down to their pace, but Ling Tong didn't bother to return the look, keeping his attention focused on the clearing ahead of them where a large group of people stood in a nervous huddle. All of them seemed to be looking at something, and Ling Tong swallowed hard, his imagination running even faster than his feet.

Had Lu Xun broken an arm, or a leg or something? Or was the injury even worse? And what the hell had Gan Ning been doing at the time? Shouldn't he have protected Lu Xun from whatever it was? Some friend Gan Ning was turning out to be…

With these thoughts, Ling Tong and his companions broke through the outer ring of bystanders and found themselves in the center of the group, only one clump of people remaining in front of them.

Lu Xun was lying on the ground, and to Ling Tong he looked very pale, though his eyes were open and his lips seemed to be forming unintelligible words of some kind. Han Dang and Huang Gai were crouched on either side of him, with a number of worried counselors standing at their shoulders, Shang Xiang and Sun Ce leaning closer to assess the damage. All those assembled looked up as the newest trio burst into their midst, and then their eyes moved back to Lu Xun's limp, panting form, silent with concern and apprehension.

Gan Ning broke away from Ling Tong's side and moved to kneel next to Lu Xun's head, dropping one tanned hand onto the smaller boy's shoulder. The contact pulled disoriented eyes up to meet his, and Gan Ning tried a smile, the expression more than a little forced at the corners of his lips.

"Hey, Baby Bear. How ya feelin', buddy? Are ya all right?"

Lu Xun murmured a little in response, but none of the sounds made any sense, and Ling Tong pressed his lips together against the funny, almost nauseous feeling in his stomach. It wasn't worry – it couldn't be. Because worry would have meant that he cared what happened to Lu Xun, and he really didn't…

Cheng Pu must have noticed his nephew's expression despite the boy's attempt to hold it back, because he brushed one warm hand against Ling Tong's back as he moved forward to complete the triad of managers, his kind smile steady on his features as he knelt at Lu Xun's side.

"Lu Xun? Can you hear me? Are my words making sense?"

Lu Xun nodded a little, though he still looked beyond dazed to Ling Tong. Gan Ning ran a hand through his hair and moved back a step to allow Cheng Pu closer to the patient, the halting explanation falling from his lips as the manager examined Lu Xun's head with gentle hands.

"We… we were down in the valley, y'know… right on th'path, Cheng Pu, I swear. Ya know I'd never take th'kids anywhere dangerous."

Cheng Pu nodded a little, sparing Gan Ning an encouraging glance before he went back to studying his fallen counselor. Sturdy fingers touched the back of Lu Xun's head, and the boy winced, almost whimpering though he caught himself before the sound emerged.

Gan Ning swallowed, shaking his head as though to rid himself of a persistent fly. "So we… we were jus' takin' the kids down ta see the waterfall. And all a th'sudden, Baby Bear's horse rears up and throws 'im off, fer no reason at all. He was out fer a couple o'minutes before I could get 'im up again… said 'is arm hurt pretty bad…"

Apparently out of explanations, Gan Ning trailed off, his eyes falling to the pine needle carpet as his voice disappeared. Ling Tong watched the cowboy's face for a moment, distracted by the open fear glowing in every line of the boy's face – then Lu Xun groaned a little, and everyone's eyes shot back to him.

"It… it's not Gan Ning's fault…"

Cheng Pu smiled, helping Lu Xun lean into a sitting position. The boy looked around at all of the waiting managers before his eyes settled on Ling Tong's uncle, dazed but determined in his unnaturally pale face.

"There was a… a snake in the grass. I saw it just before I fell. It startled the horse… that's all."

Cheng Pu shook his head slightly, leaning Lu Xun's body against one of his shoulders so that he was supporting all of the injured counselor's weight. "Don't worry, Lu Xun. No one is being blamed for this. It was a simple accident." Lu Xun nodded as best he could, and Cheng Pu brushed sweaty bangs away from the boy's forehead, trying to get a clear look at his staring eyes. "Now… can you tell me where you're hurt?"

The conversation descended into a series of unintelligible mumbles, and Ling Tong stopped listening, letting the sounds drift away on the summer breeze. Gradually, he found his attention drawn back to Gan Ning, who was still staring at the ground as though the earth had become deep water and he was trying to find its shallowest point.

The drama student could practically see the guilt flashing over his hated comrade's face, and even though he had no problem whatsoever with Gan Ning suffering a little, there was something about that expression that just… bothered him. Hadn't Lu Xun said it was an accident? Gan Ning was being so melodramatic by pretending he'd even had anything to do with the injury…

Without really intending to, Ling Tong found that he had taken a step forward, and Gan Ning's eyes came up to settle on his face, stopping the drama student in his tracks. For an instant, as all of the words flew from Ling Tong's mind, he felt mild panic rising up in his stomach – but years as an actor had taught him composure, if nothing else, and he found his tongue again before the cowboy could remark on his silence.

"Don't be an idiot, Gan Ning."

The boy in question blinked, and a few other sets of eyes moved to study the pair as though preparing for a squabble. But Ling Tong ignored them all, pressing on without hesitation.

"He said it was an accident. I don't know who you think you are, but there's no way you could have done anything about that snake, or about his horse once it freaked out. So would you quit moping already? It's really annoying."

As the last word left his lips, Ling Tong took a deep breath and held it, trying to still the adrenaline that was coursing through his heartbeat without cause. He didn't know why the little speech had gotten him so worked up, or why he was waiting on pins and needles for Gan Ning's response. He hadn't said it to make the stupid cowboy feel better, or anything, so it didn't matter what the stupid cowboy said in return…

Gan Ning watched the shorter boy in silence for a moment, and then a thin smile wormed across his lips, echoing the hand that came up to tousle Ling Tong's ponytail. "Thanks, girly," the cowboy replied, giving his companion a somewhat drained wink. "Didn' know ya cared."

Ling Tong huffed, shaking his head to free the strands of his hair from Gan Ning's mussing clutches. "I don't care," he snapped, fixing his ponytail with a decisive swish. "And don't call me that." With that, the drama student turned away, trying to tame the inexplicable heat that had flared in his cheeks and the pulse that was still too fast along his wrist.

Sun Ce looked as though he would have liked to comment on Ling Tong's lecture, but he was distracted by Cheng Pu straightening out of his crouch and turning to face the group, rubbing his hands together as Lu Xun lay back against the ground. The manager glanced around at all of the counselors before a small smile took hold of his mouth again, and he exhaled softly, gesturing to the boy behind him.

"Lu Xun will be all right. He has a bad concussion and a sprained wrist, and he's probably pulled a muscle in his leg, but nothing too serious. We won't even have to take him down to a hospital."

At his words, a collective sigh of relief went up from all those gathered, including the huge circle of children around them that Ling Tong had all but forgotten about. Cheng Pu nodded to Huang Gai, and the gentle giant stood up from his kneel, waving both muscled arms above his head.

"All right, young ones – let's get back to our cabins for now. Cheng Pu and Han Dang will take Lu Xun to the main lodge and get him all patched up. We should give them some room."

Reluctantly, the children began to break off into little clumps and disperse across the campground, followed even more slowly by their whispering counselors. Ling Tong shot Lu Xun one more look and prepared to make his exit, but his uncle's voice called him back, halting his steps mid-stride.

"Tong, Gan Ning, wait up a moment. Shang Xiang as well, please. I need a word with you."

The drama student blinked at the summons, but he obliged Cheng Pu and turned back toward the center, brown eyes curious in his smooth face. He noticed that, besides the counselors his uncle had requested, Sun Ce was standing staunchly at Shang Xiang's elbow, clearly determined to be involved in whatever was going on, and Zhou Yu had stopped a few feet back, waiting for his companion to catch up.

Ling Tong rolled his eyes. How typical of Camp Wu's juvenile dictator to demand inclusion in _everything_ that went on…

Cheng Pu cast Sun Ce a cursory glance, but whatever he wanted to say was apparently more important than the boy's disobedience. The manager put a warm hand on Lu Xun's quiet shoulder, and his eyes settled firmly on his nephew's face, unnerving Ling Tong with the pure focus of his gaze.

"Tong… I have to ask a favor of you."

Ling Tong swallowed, already anxious about this. If Cheng Pu was asking, that meant that whatever it was would be so distasteful that his uncle couldn't find the heart to order it… Lu Xun coughed a little and Ling Tong bit his tongue, kicking himself mentally for not responding sooner.

"Yeah? What is it?"

Cheng Pu sighed, shaking his head. "I know you aren't going to like this, but… in light of Lu Xun's injury, I have no choice."

It really was going to be _that_ bad. Cheng Pu was sentencing him to hell on earth. Hell on earth… Ling Tong was already at Camp Wu, and his uncle was about to make it worse, which could only mean—

The manager took a deep breath, glancing between his nephew and the silent cowboy to his left. "You and Gan Ning will have to be activity partners for the remainder of camp. And cabin partners as well."

Gan Ning started, and Shang Xiang's mouth fell slightly open, but Ling Tong only dropped his face into his hands. He'd guessed it. The only thing that could make Camp Wu worse than the delinquents, the children, and the endless bugs was 24/7 in Gan Ning's company.

He was going to die.

End Chapter 9


	10. Chapter 10

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

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Cheng Pu's pronouncement was enough to keep the counselors speechless for a long moment—and then the voices of opposition burst toward him from all sides, far too convoluted to deliver a successful message. There were so many different tones in the cacophony that Ling Tong was fairly sure he was the only one who _hadn't_ shouted. No, he had already gone much deeper than that—slowly spiraling down into the darkness that came with resigning oneself to the worst possible fate on earth.

"One at a time, please," Han Dang snapped from his place at Cheng Pu's shoulder, more than a little annoyance coloring the manager's tone. Gan Ning's voice followed his so closely that they almost overlapped, the boy's curse pitched at an angry growl.

"Yeh've gotta be flippin' kidding me."

At another time, Ling Tong might have taken offense at the obvious display of how little interest the cowboy had in spending time with him. As it was, he was too deep in his own distress about the exact same subject to so much as summon a retort, and it was Shang Xiang's protest that took up the cry, sharp with the young woman's open incredulity.

"Cheng Pu, you can't be serious! I mean, I understand that Baby Bear can't go on horseback rides anymore, but… but Queenie?" Shang Xiang put a worried hand to her temple, as though just the thought of the two teens sharing an activity group was giving her a headache. "Those two are at each others' throats all day as it is! How can you even think of putting them in charge of the children together?"

Even Lu Xun tried to contribute to the discussion, leaning up as best he could from the ground and groping blearily for the manager's sleeve. "Please, Cheng Pu… I'll be fine in a day or two. Just let me rest a few days, and then I can be Gan Ning's partner again. There's no need to switch…"

Cheng Pu listened to the allegations in silence, and after a moment the counselors' voices died down, each pair of eyes tracing the older man's face as though waiting for an argument. But Ling Tong knew better. By the time Cheng Pu had gone silent, the argument was already over—his uncle never went back on a decision once he'd made up his mind. Which meant his grave was as good as dug, and he might as well go build himself a coffin with loose timber from the woods—

"I understand all of your concerns," Cheng Pu replied at last, one thick hand rising to rub his stubbled chin. "And I promise you, this isn't something I would ask lightly. But even after you've healed, Lu Xun, I won't feel comfortable putting you on a horse again for quite a while, and I can't leave the trail rides completely in Gan Ning's hands all that time."

At the mention of the horseback riding, Ling Tong felt himself grow stiff, and he tried hard not to let the queasy uncertainty in his stomach show on his face. Fortunately, his fellow counselors were still focused on the problem at hand, and none of them seemed to notice his subtle change in demeanor, too absorbed with their disagreement to pay the silent drama student any attention.

"There's got ta be somebody else who could take Baby Bear's place," Gan Ning insisted, arms crossed stiff as marble over his chest. "There're twelve of us up here, fer cryin' out loud…"

"Who would you have me pick, Gan Ning?" Cheng Pu's voice was still calm, but it had taken on a sharper edge, as though the manager's tone were beginning to reflect his impatience. "I can't separate Sun Quan and Zhou Tai. The Qiao sisters would be miserable apart, and they can't ride in any case. If one of the children were to get hurt during a hike, I'd want someone there who could carry them down, and Tong is simply not strong enough to do that."

Ling Tong felt a little heat rising in his cheeks as the other counselors' gazes swept across him, taking in the frame that was just too slight to carry a ten-year-old down a mountain and legs with so little muscle he might not make it up the mountain himself. The drama student folded his arms and avoided their stares, glaring purposefully at a spot beside his shoe. So he wasn't an enormous bear like Lu Meng or Taishi Ci—so what? Acting didn't exactly go hand in hand with weightlifting, and if chance hadn't landed him in this terrible camp in the first place, his relative strength would never have been an issue…

Shang Xiang's response brought his eyes back to the group, her voice flitting through the air like a nervous bird. "Well, what about me? I could—"

"No, Shang Xiang." Cheng Pu's tone was as final as the shake of his head, dark eyes moving kindly across the girl's stubborn face. "I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather keep you with the girls. We're already down one female counselor this year, and I think they'd be uncomfortable under the care of two boys."

Shang Xiang glanced between Lu Xun and Ling Tong, and to the drama student it seemed as though she were sizing them up and trying to decide if either of them were truly more of a man than she was. But she kept the barb behind her lips, and all Ling Tong could do was bristle, resenting the unspoken insult as silence fell across the clearing once more. At last Han Dang shifted in his stance and turned to glance left, his calculating gaze settling on Sun Ce.

"Well… I suppose that would leave the two of you…"

There was something marginally unpleasant about the manager's tone, and Ling Tong was left wondering exactly what Sun Ce had done to get on Han Dang's last nerve. Then again, that wouldn't have been hard for the pushy little dictator, whose amber eyes had grown very wide at the threat. Han Dang scoffed and seemed to consider, brushing back dark bangs with a hand as callous as his stare.

"You might be a lot less trouble if you were separated, after all."

Cheng Pu had turned to face the other manager, and his eyes were full of patient warning, harboring the same look that Ling Tong remembered getting as a kid when he complained about the same thing too many times. But his uncle got no chance to give his opinion on the subject, because another voice beat him to it—a loud, indignant voice, matching its owner's expression for fervor and outrage.

"No way! Not a chance!"

Sun Ce took two large steps back, and he slung one arm out in front of Zhou Yu as though Han Dang had threatened to take his companion away by force. The action reminded Ling Tong a little of Zhou Yu's on the first day of camp, and he was surprised to realize that the protective—or was it possessive?—streak he'd observed then was just as much a part of Sun Ce as his shadowy companion.

Zhou Yu hadn't said anything in response to Han Dang's threat, but he didn't have to—the shorter boy in front of him was still running his mouth a thousand miles a minute.

"Zhou Yu's _my_ partner!" Sun Ce snapped, glaring at both managers as his voice arced across the clearing in a near shout. "It's always been that way, and it's always gonna be that way. Don't even think about trying to separate us just because Queenie can't get along with anybody!"

Ling Tong opened his mouth to snap that he was learning to get along with Camp Wu's _nicer_ delinquents just fine, thank you very much, and that it was only people like Sun Ce he couldn't stand—but a hand on his shoulder stopped him, and the drama student was surprised to see that Gan Ning had moved to his side and was shaking his head solemnly. He was more than ready to snap at the cowboy, too, and would have if Han Dang's footsteps hadn't drawn his attention again, pulling every gaze to the frustrated manager moving toward his obstinate counselors.

"You are so much trouble," Han Dang growled under his breath, and something about his tone made Ling Tong flinch, Gan Ning's hold on his shoulder tightening as Sun Ce dropped his hands into ready fists. The manager shook his head, coming to a stop so close to the sunshine boy that a gust of wind might have blown them into each other. "I don't know why I didn't just agree to get rid of you after last—"

"Han Dang."

Cheng Pu's voice was quiet—far quieter than his fellow manager's—but there was something about it that cut right through the other man's words and drew the attention of all the upset counselors around him, sending unnatural silence throughout the clearing. Ling Tong felt a shiver go down his spine, inspired more by his uncle's tone than the soft breeze that had begun to blow around them. He knew that voice only too well. It was the voice Cheng Pu used when his patience was hanging by a spider's thread, only moments away from shattering his easygoing temperament …

"Put your hands down, Sun Ce," the manager ordered without raising his voice, and reluctantly the boy obeyed, though he moved a step closer to Zhou Yu as his fists dissolved. Cheng Pu gave him a stern look, dark eyes cold in his usually genial face. "How many times have I told you that I will not allow fighting at this camp? And the fact that you would even raise your fists to an adult…"

"But he—"

"Quiet. Don't interrupt me."

Sun Ce's voice stopped as abruptly as it had begun, cut off by a sharp look and sharper retort. Cheng Pu put a hand to his forehead, massaging the headache that Ling Tong could hardly doubt was rolling through his temples.

"No one is going to separate you two, Sun Ce. And we will not be getting rid of anyone." This last was directed at Han Dang, who turned away and stared out over the lake as his partner continued. "We are just going to switch the cabin groups a little. Sun Ce, I don't see why any of this concerns you in the first place, so why don't you and Zhou Yu go get the kids ready for swimming, all right?"

Sun Ce's shoulders had relaxed considerably under Cheng Pu's soothing voice, and at the final suggestion he turned to look up at Zhou Yu, amber eyes seeking their darker counterparts. Ling Tong couldn't tell what manner of silent messages passed through their gaze, but they were sufficient to put a smile back on Sun Ce's face, and Camp Wu's juvenile dictator set off for the cabins as he'd been instructed, pulling Zhou Yu behind him.

"Okay, okay, I'm going… well, bye, Queenie!" the sunshine boy shouted in a retreating hail, leading his stoic companion toward the clustered cabins. "Good luck!"

Ling Tong crossed his arms over his chest, fairly certain that his expression was a far better response than any words could have been. 'Good luck'? That made it sound like living with Gan Ning was even a _possibility_. It would be an act of mercy if his uncle just shot him now…

"Tong?"

The questioning syllable drew the drama student's attention back to Cheng Pu, who was watching him with composed countenance and a patient stare. Ling Tong could tell he was waiting for an answer to the favor he'd asked before the argument even started—why his uncle bothered asking, however, was a mystery. He'd obviously made his decision already, hadn't he?

Ling Tong huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking Gan Ning's restraining hand from his shoulder as he did so. "Well, it doesn't look like I have much of a choice, does it?" the drama student snipped, shifting his weight as his gaze swept across Cheng Pu's face. His uncle's expression took on a distinct aspect of guilt, and against his will Ling Tong found that he was speaking again, unconsciously trying to put the manager at ease. "Whatever. It's not like this summer can get any _worse_."

What more could go wrong, anyway? Trapped in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of teenage savages, fifty-odd screaming children, no TV and a rival he couldn't stand… wasn't that the definition of hell?

Cheng Pu exhaled into a heavy sigh, running one hand across his unshaven chin. "Thank you, Tong. I'm sorry to have to do this to you."

Since his uncle truly looked apologetic, Ling Tong decided not to rub how awful a time he was having into the manager's face again, though the prospect was tempting. He settled for leaning back on his heels with a sharp frown instead, shaking his head to scare a fly that had been nagging his ear, as Cheng Pu stepped forward to regard Gan Ning and the drama student more closely.

"It'll be at least a week before you have to take the kids riding again… I might ask Huang Gai to map out a different route to the waterfall. Just use that time to get used to the boys, all right, Tong?"

Ling Tong shrugged, and his uncle clapped a hand on his shoulder, startling the boy a little with the force of his touch. Cheng Pu's other hand reached out to assert a similar hold on Gan Ning, though the cowboy looked more uncomfortable than his new cabin partner at the unexpected contact.

"I need you to get along," the manager told them sternly, though his words drew a snort from Gan Ning and Ling Tong only rolled his eyes. Why did his uncle and Sun Ce keep making it sound like their feud was optional? It wasn't the drama student's fault that Gan Ning had no manners, bed head, and a speech impediment.

"Sure thing. Shouldn' be a problem at all."

Gan Ning's sarcastic reply was enough to dislodge Cheng Pu's hands from the boys' shoulders, and he gave them both a gentle shove in the direction of the cabin, sending them a mildly irritated look as he turned back to help Han Dang and Shang Xiang lead Lu Xun to the main lodge.

Ling Tong exchanged a quick glance with the cowboy beside him, and then he spun on heel and strode toward his former cabin as fast as his legs could carry him, wishing in vain that his stride were longer than Gan Ning's. Unfortunately, his irritating rival kept easy pace with him, and his drawling voice hesitated only a moment before breaking the tense silence between them, the accent immediately hitting Ling Tong's last nerve.

"S'been some day, huh, girly?"

That was _it_. The stupid, rooster-headed cowboy's private nickname for him was the absolute last straw.

The drama student stopped so abruptly that Gan Ning almost passed right by him, pausing awkwardly halfway between his strides to look back at the fuming boy. Yes, Ling Tong was fuming—he could practically feel the smoke curling up from his ears, and he hoped Gan Ning could see it, too, because he was mad as hell and more than ready for the infuriating cowboy to hear about it.

"All right. Listen up." Ling Tong squared his shoulders and did his best to look intimidating, though Gan Ning only raised an eyebrow at his sharp glare. The drama student huffed, crossing both arms over his chest. "I may have to put up with these arrangements for the rest of the summer, but let's get a few things straight right now. _I don't like you_."

Ling Tong forced as much malice as he could summon into the words, but the cowboy only blinked at him, indicating to the younger teen that his words hadn't been quite powerful enough. The drama student tried again.

"In fact, it's not even that I don't like you. I hate you. I hate spending time with you, and I hate talking to you, and I hate—everything. I just hate everything about you. So leave me alone already!"

By the time he'd finished, Ling Tong was running short on breath, and his voice had transformed almost into a shout, prompting a few curious campers to glance out of cabin windows toward the face-off at the edge of the clearing. Nonetheless, Gan Ning was still watching him with a primarily blank expression, apparently not nearly as offended as Ling Tong had predicted.

A moment passed in silence, and then the ragtag cowboy tilted his head to one side, watching his companion with unnervingly serious eyes.

"Why?" Gan Ning asked, and it was Ling Tong's turn to blink, startled by the simple question. Gan Ning stood up a little straighter, watching the drama student carefully. "Why d'you hate me so much anyway, girly? I don' remember doin' anything to you."

Ling Tong stared at his rival for a moment, caught off guard by the request for an explanation he didn't exactly have. But the drama student was not one to be left speechless for long, and within seconds he'd regained his composure, flicking his ponytail away from the warm skin of his neck.

"Because you're a jerk, Gan Ning."

The accusation didn't sound half as forceful as Ling Tong had hoped, and its power diminished yet again as Gan Ning adjusted his hat, considering his new partner with a calculating stare.

"So? Yer a whiny brat, but I don' hate _you_. Hate's a strong word, girly."

Ling Tong wasn't sure what surprised him more: the current of philosophy in Gan Ning's reply or the knowledge that his hate for the cowboy wasn't completely mutual. But his surprise only lasted for a moment before his mind registered the criticism hidden in Gan Ning's response, and his indignation responded with a vengeance, extending his arms to give the cowboy a good, hard shove in the chest.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

Gan Ning's eyes widened as he stumbled backward and almost lost his footing, but Ling Tong didn't care, only disappointed that the rude delinquent hadn't gotten a face full of dirt to match his mouth. The drama student stamped one foot against the ground, his glare more than equal to the force of his rival's.

"You always do that!" Ling Tong snapped, trying to keep his voice soft enough to avoid drawing a crowd. "You're always insulting me, and calling me a girl, and—"

"Hey now," Gan Ning shot back, regaining his balance and stepping toward the angry teen again. "I ain't callin' you a girl, brat—I'm sayin' you act like one. Nobody'd mistake you fer a girl. Yeh're flat as a washboard."

Ling Tong felt heat rising in his cheeks at the observation, and the storm of irritation building within him grew that much stronger, tensing every muscle in his body and grinding his hands into fists at his side.

"I look nothing like a girl!" the drama student spat, and Gan Ning snorted, leaning back on one heel as though he were considering the claim. After a moment, the cowboy shrugged, smirking beneath the overdone spikes of his mop-like hair.

"Nah… guess not. Yeh're weak as a kitten, though."

Ling Tong bristled for a moment, and then threw up his hands in frustration, marching toward the cabins with a stride so angry he almost expected the earth to crumble beneath him. He hated Gan Ning—he hated him, hated him, hated him, and nothing would ever be able to change that.

"Why do you always have to say things like that?!" Ling Tong shot over one shoulder, and in his backward glance he could see Gan Ning balking at the question, hands outstretched in a gesture of exasperation.

"What d'ya want me to do, girly? Quote poetry at'cha?"

The drama student had almost reached the door of his former cabin, but he paused long enough to get the last word in, turning back to shout at the cowboy who had halted some distance behind him.

"No thanks! You'd ruin it with your awful voice!" the teen accused, his shout ricocheting against the walls of the cabins around him. Then he turned and stomped into the cabin, slamming the door behind him with the power of all the anger and adrenaline swirling through his veins.

The sun had been so bright outside that the small building seemed almost pitch black, and for a moment Ling Tong leaned back against the door in blindness, lifting both hands to cover his face. The wood was cool against his warm, angry skin, and in a matter of moments it had drawn his heartbeat back toward normalcy, too, dissolving the irritation that lay like a lump of clay in the pit of his stomach.

Then a little voice in the back of his head reminded Ling Tong how ridiculous he must have looked having a shouting match with Gan Ning in the middle of all the cabins, and the drama student groaned, hiding his eyes with his palms. How could he have forgotten himself like that? Gan Ning behaving like a half-civilized maniac was one thing, but…

_Why?_

The cowboy's question echoed back to him through the darkness, and Ling Tong sighed, tapping the back of his head against the door in consideration. Why did he hate Gan Ning so much, anyway? It seemed like, after a week, he should have been getting used to the other boy's mannerisms, no matter how irritating.

But…

Ling Tong huffed, crossing both arms over his chest and staring into the darkness as his eyesight slowly returned to him. But there was just something about Gan Ning that really _bugged_ him, no matter how many times he confronted it. The teen couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was about the disheveled cowboy that drove him up the wall—no doubt he'd have more than enough time to figure it out in the infernal weeks to come…

"Um… Mr. Queenie?"

At the soft voice, Ling Tong started and looked down, and his eyes widened as he noticed for the first time that he was not alone in the cabin. Four sets of big, curious eyes were staring up at him, and Greta—who had been dogging his steps ever since the nametag incident—reached out to take hold of his shirt, her expression warring between worry and curiosity.

"Mr. Queenie? What's wrong? What happened while you were out there?"

Ling Tong looked at the huddle of girls around him, and then he let out a deep sigh, brushing back his sweaty bangs with a tired hand. This was going to take a _lot_ of explaining.

End Chapter 10


	11. Chapter 11

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

A/N: This chapter is very, very long. Don't get used to it. For some reason, this section just would not end... taking notes from Secession, perhaps. In any case, I can't make any promises, but I will try very hard to update this story more frequently in the coming months.

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If he were listing all of the stupid ideas ever conceived in the history of the world—alphabetically or by importance, take your pick—there were a lot of things Ling Tong would not have neglected to leave out. Politics, for one; short skirts as a fashion statement even in winter and the one-way streets that looped around his hometown and were always in everybody's way.

Yes, the number of things Ling Tong had found occasion to resent in his life was far longer than that life itself. A list detailing them all might have started somewhere near people who tried to remodel their own homes and gone around the block twice, ending either with parking permits or with the incredible amount of packaging he had to throw away every time he bought something.

Or rather, that's where it _would_ have ended, if he hadn't so recently found something else to pile on his growing stack of universal complaints. And that something else was unfortunately the activity he was currently involved in—or, perhaps _stuck _in was a better way of putting it.

Very stuck.

Marshmallow stuck.

"Need a little help there, Queenie?"

Ling Tong shot Sun Ce a sharp glare across the glowing bonfire, but Camp Wu's local dictator didn't seemed to get the message, if his widened grin was any indication. Despite Ling Tong's best attempts, the infuriating delinquent did not fall over dead with a burning hole between his eyes—instead, he just kept laughing and leaned back on one cocky hand, the fire's glow making him look that much more demonic.

"Sheesh… if I'd known you were gonna have so much trouble, I'd have made somebody do it for you. How can this be your first time—"

"Shut up!" Ling Tong snapped, stretching his fingers as far apart as they could go. But the squishy, half-burned marshmallow just stretched with them, like a spider's web caught on moving branches, and the children gathered around the drama student began to laugh as well, their once innocent voices raised in amusement that was all Sun Ce's fault.

Yes, Sun Ce's fault. Had Ling Tong wanted to make a s'more in the first place? Hell, had he even wanted to _come_ to this stupid campfire gathering? The drama student had seriously considered locking himself in the outhouse for the remainder of the night, disgusting though it was, because if he had to play nice with a bunch of elementary school brats and their hardly more mature counselors _one more time_, he thought he was actually going to snap.

As if he didn't have enough to think about without attending the homey little get-together, what with all the afternoon's events and his shouting match with Gan Ning. Had it ever occurred to Sun Ce that the drama student might have had packing to do, since he was moving cabins, or that maybe he'd wanted to spend a quiet evening sulking by himself before he was thrust into Gan Ning's hellish company 24 by 7? Had it occurred to the pushy little busybody that maybe Ling Tong just wanted to spend one blessed night _alone_?

But that was a stupid question. No one's interests but Sun Ce's ever occurred to the demanding delinquent, let alone the concept of asking permission before dragging them into every situation like a huge Godzilla monster, screaming campers trapped between its greedy palms…

"Hey, Queenie, I'm serious."

Sun Ce's voice interrupted the drama student's internal rant, and he glared at his law-breaking comrade again, trying to superimpose the image of Godzilla onto his tormentor's childish face. Sun Ce shifted a little in his seat, and the movement earned a mild glare from Zhou Yu, who had been helping a child skewer his marshmallow until one mindless elbow interrupted him.

"Do you want me to come over there and do it for you?" Sun Ce offered again, frowning just a little as he eyed Ling Tong's sugar-coated hands. "Because you're bugging the hell out of me, just hanging onto it like that."

Again the children's laughter followed the light-hearted jab, and Ling Tong felt his face becoming warm—a sensation that had less to do with the fire than he'd have wished, though at least the dim light hid his embarrassment from the vultures around him.

"I'm doing fine," the drama student shot back, purposefully breaking eye contact in the hopes that it would shut Sun Ce up. But his roving gaze landed on his congealing fingers again, and in spite of himself Ling Tong had to sigh, resisting the urge to hide his face in those gooey, crystallizing hands.

S'mores. One more thing he'd have added to the list of stupid ideas, if he were at liberty to hold a pen right at the moment.

Ling Tong growled a little in his throat, doing his best to pull the threads of overcooked sugar from one palm, though he just ended up piling them in the other. Who had invented these troublesome desserts, anyway? It was so much trouble to cook the marshmallow in the first place—especially if a certain mouthy counselor with a dinosaur's ego complex was insisting nobody could use forks—and the graham crackers broke when you tried to make a sandwich. Couldn't he just eat his chocolate in peace, for crying out loud?

"Maybe you oughta let T-rex give ya a hand there, girly. Yer only makin' it worse."

The irkingly familiar voice came from somewhere to his left; Ling Tong wasn't looking, because he didn't care where the broom-headed cowboy had gotten off to. He wished he didn't care about the teasing voice, either, but it was hard not to when it seemed to speak for every chuckling camper gathered around the fire—even the managers. Even his _uncle_. How unfair was that? His uncle, who'd promised to help him have as good a summer as possible…

"Ugh! This isn't working!"

The last of his patience evaporated as the frustrated cry escaped Ling Tong's throat, and he threw what remained of his crushed s'more into the flames, earning a few startled sparks from the bonfire at his furious, mostly useless motion. The drama student shook his hands viciously, but the stickiness remained, and now a few graham cracker crumbs were sticking as well; the motion earned him nothing but renewed laughter from his unsympathetic companions.

"Temper tantrum?" Taishi Ci muttered under his breath, and beside him Lu Meng snorted, a careless nod signaling his agreement.

Ling Tong seriously considered storming from the gathering and throwing himself into the lake, in a hopefully less vain attempt to be rid of the frustrating residue and the heat of embarrassment in his cheeks—and he likely would have, if it hadn't been for the napkin that suddenly appeared in his lap. The drama student blinked up at Shang Xiang as she knelt in front of him, smiling in a much kinder way than the rest of the amused counselors.

"Jerks… leave Queenie alone, guys."

The girl rubbed her napkin vigorously back and forth along Ling Tong's hands, and he took a moment to marvel that Camp Wu's female counselors were the only people in the entire establishment who didn't make his nickname sound like the insult it was. Shang Xiang succeeded in taking off a good deal of the marshmallow, and as she tucked the napkin back into a pocket she leaned forward, smiling under the shadows of the firelight.

"Don't listen to them, okay? The first time he came up here, T-rex was messing around with his marshmallows and got one in Zhou Yu's hair." Ling Tong's eyes widened at the secret, and Shang Xiang laughed, earning a curious look from the campers spread around them. "Zhou Yu looked ready to strangle him!"

The drama student cast a cursory glance toward the delinquents on the other side of the fire, who seemed to be squabbling about how many marshmallows Sun Ce had to leave for the kids, and he found himself smirking a little. Sure, Zhou Yu was pretty protective of Wu's little dictator on a regular basis—but Ling Tong had a feeling that the already cold counselor would be none too peachy with a sticky mess in his long hair, even to his constant companion. In fact, the drama student might have paid money to get a glimpse of Sun Ce's face right then…

Unless he'd been laughing, which wasn't out of the question.

"Um… Mr. Queenie?"

The newly familiar voice distracted Ling Tong from his musings, and he glanced right to see that the whole contingent of four girls from his cabin—well, his _former_ cabin—had tiptoed their way up to the front of the group and huddled around him, sticking shyly together like clumps of cottonseed. Greta was in the lead, as usual, and she held her hands out to him, turning her eyes to the fire as though his gaze were embarrassing her even further than her errand in front of all fifty campers.

"We made you a s'more. Do you want to try it?"

Ling Tong was sorely tempted to answer that he had no interest in getting near another marshmallow for the rest of the year, considering the disaster that the last one had sparked—but Shang Xiang stepped down hard on his foot, being bossy as usual, and the drama student bit back his initial reply, forcing a smile onto his face in spite of his grimace.

"Sure thing… I guess."

Not as positive a response as Shang Xiang's glare was saying she'd wanted, but the young woman was going to have to settle for that, because Ling Tong drew the line at _encouraging_ people to make him miserable and asking them to do it again. The little girls didn't seem to notice his reluctance, however, and the gooey dessert was pressed into his hands with a minimum of timid giggling.

"Tell us how it tastes, okay?"

Ling Tong wrinkled his nose as he felt marshmallow fluff congealing against his thumb again, but he swallowed the expression long enough for his cabin group to roll away into the rows of campers lined up around the blaze, every eye glazed with the reflection of the flames. Once they were gone, the drama student took a tentative bite of his present, and he was mildly surprised to find that the marshmallow was burned only on one side—quite an accomplishment for most of the tater tots assembled.

As he chewed, Ling Tong let his gaze wander; but rather than the bonfire, his eyes roved across the campers crowded around it, roasting sticks and gooey fingers occasionally waving through the air.

It was no small feat to fit all of Camp Wu's inhabitants around one blaze, and Ling Tong had to admit grudging admiration for his uncle's fire-building skills, since he could keep the flames this high and wide in the central clearing. Of course, if had probably helped that he had the great shoulders of Taishi Ci and Lu Meng to carry endless armloads of kindling to the appropriate location. From the size of the nearby woodpile, the drama student was fairly sure the ox-like counselors had pulled whole trees out of the ground just for the occasion, the branches of which they were likely planning to snap like toothpicks in their enormously powerful hands.

Though seating had been undesignated, the counselors had managed to spread themselves fairly equally around the entire circumference of the blaze. Taishi Ci and Lu Meng were perched near the stack of wood, no doubt in case their brute strength was needed to lift those ridiculous logs, and Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had taken up position right beside the s'more supplies, presumably so that Sun Ce could eat more than his fair share and Zhou Yu could stop him from doing so.

Shang Xiang and the Qiao sisters were sitting just a little to Ling Tong's left, laughing together about some whispered matter he hadn't caught, and as a result all of the little girl campers were gathered around them, with the drama student hopelessly trapped in their midst.

It hadn't pleased Ling Tong all that much to see that he was making up part of the female contingent—especially after Gan Ning's comments earlier that afternoon—but the only thing worse than a memory of the troublesome cowboy was the real thing, and Ling Tong had taken pains to sit as far from that as possible. In the end, even giggling girls were better than the boy who seemed to be making a point to get on his last nerve every time they crossed paths.

The drama student blinked as his eyes completed a circuit of the group, and then he glanced around again, forehead furrowing in soft confusion. If his eyesight wasn't deteriorating right along with his patience, then there were a few people missing—

"There are still some s'mores left, right?"

The hesitant voice from the edge of the circle cast a spell of silence across the chatting campers, and Ling Tong turned in his seat to see Lu Xun standing in the long night shadows, a crutch beneath one arm and the other gripping Zhou Tai's waist. The stoic adult was as expressionless as ever, his face looking even more like granite under the flickering firelight—but the boy who was ever at his side seemed to be in high spirits, and he stepped forward to speak to the larger group, off-colored eyes brilliant with reflected flames.

"Hi, everybody! Sorry we're late—Baby Bear had a little trouble getting out of his cabin, so Zhou Tai and I stopped to help him."

Lu Xun gave the younger boy a weak smile, and Sun Quan returned it with a smile of his own, more dazzling for the vulnerability Ling Tong had seen etched there several times since his arrival at Camp Wu. The drama student couldn't help thinking that it was the kind of smile a fifteen-year-old should always have on his face—but that thought reminded him far too much of his uncle's mushy logic, and he shook his head hard to send it away, thankful for the distraction Sun Quan's indignant shout provided.

"Hey! Who let T-rex sit by the s'more stuff? Now there definitely won't be enough!"

Sun Ce just grinned in response to the complaint, looking all the more the part of the thief because of the conspicuous line of chocolate smeared around his mouth. The younger boy pounced into the middle of the circle, one arm outstretched in accusation, and as Zhou Tai and Lu Xun found seats along an empty tree trunk his voice filled the crowded clearing, his tone assuming the same distinctive pout as his lips.

"Hand over the rest, you greedy dinosaur!"

Sun Quan's insult drew more than a few laughs from the group around the fire—not least from Sun Ce himself, who grabbed the bag of marshmallows and held it behind his back, tongue out in an extremely grown-up gesture that made Ling Tong roll his eyes. Honestly… his five-year-old cousin was probably more mature than these two…

"Come and get it, Captain Kid," Sun Ce taunted, leaning back securely in his seat. "I've claimed these marshmallows, and nobody's getting them away from me without a—ow!"

It was Zhou Yu's hand coming down hard on the ruthless dictator's skull that had caused the sudden interruption, and the punishing blow shot all ten of Sun Ce's fingers to his throbbing scalp, abandoning the bag of marshmallows to the ground. Sun Ce stifled a curse between his lips as he rubbed his pounding head, and a current of laughter went through the assembly. Zhou Yu rose quietly from the bench and reached down to fetch the marshmallows, ignoring his companion's indignant squawking.

"Jeez, Zhou Yu—what'd you have to do that for? I think you broke something!"

The dark young man only shook his head, long black hair slipping over one shoulder as he lifted the forgotten marshmallows into his arms. "You'll live," Zhou Yu answered, piling graham crackers and chocolate bars into his free hand. "You weren't particularly invested in that portion of your anatomy anyway."

"Hey!"

But the shout did little to deter Zhou Yu's progress around the circle, and in a moment he reached Lu Xun, who had left just enough space at his side for the s'more ingredients to be crammed down beside him. Sun Ce's constant shadow said nothing as he withdrew his arms from the treats, and from where Ling Tong was sitting his eyes looked as cold as ever, emotionless in his handsome face despite the errand of mercy.

Lu Xun tried to smile up at the older counselor, but to the drama student he looked decidedly nervous, soft hands fidgeting in his lap. "Thank you, Zhou Yu. Sorry for the trouble…"

But long before the words of gratitude had left Lu Xun's lips, Zhou Yu was already on his way back across the clearing, not bothering to acknowledge the boy's appreciation in the least. Ling Tong huffed under his breath, crossing both arms over his chest as the sullen young man took his seat. The resident dictator was a handful all on his own, of course—but sometimes it was easy to forget that Sun Ce's stony bodyguard was just as unpleasant. Would it have killed him to at least _act_ nice to Lu Xun, when he'd been badly injured just earlier that day? Rude didn't even begin to cover it.

Some family these delinquents were turning out to be for each other…

A moment later, Ling Tong found that he might have to amend his sarcastic observation—just a little. Lu Xun pushed a short stack of marshmallows onto an already charred stick, but a moment of hesitation proved that he was too far from the fire to cook them properly without moving. Zhou Tai was apparently not interested in being helpful, and Sun Quan had gotten involved in his own s'more, leaving the injured boy bewildered in his seat.

As he was preparing to limp toward the blaze, however, a hand appeared in front of him; Ling Tong was surprised to see that Shang Xiang had left her seat in the girls' corner and approached her fellow counselor with a steady smile. The young woman tipped her chin to one side, taking the marshmallow stick with gentle fingers.

"Need a hand there, Baby Bear? Why don't I roast these for you?"

The light was too dim for the drama student to be positive whether it was his eyes or his imagination registering the change, but it looked like Lu Xun's face had gone red, swept by the heat of the flames or something a little closer to him. With a blink of surprise, the boy released his marshmallows—and though Ling Tong certainly had other things to occupy his attention, and was by no means focusing on Lu Xun's reaction, he couldn't help noticing that the boy's eyes remained fixed on Shang Xiang's back for the duration of the roasting.

Lu Xun swallowed hard; but the motion did little to disrupt the discoloration of his face, which his stuttered gratitude only made worse. "Th-thanks a lot, Sheng Xian—I mean… Sunshine." The young woman winked at him, turning the spit slowly in her careful hand.

"Sure thing. Just happy to help."

Her reply seemed to steal the last of Lu Xun's ability to speak, and the boy descended into silence again, his cheeks still noticeably flushed despite the summer night's darkness. Ling Tong smirked a little to himself. Sometimes Lu Xun acted like such a little kid…

"Mr. Queenie?"

Speaking of kids.

A quick look to his left affirmed that the girl squad was back, and Greta had once again taken the lead, speaking for her three trailing shadows in a voice just strong enough to draw the rest of the campers' attention.

"Mr. Queenie, since you're changing cabins, does that mean you won't be our counselor anymore?"

Ling Tong frowned, a flare of reminiscent anger circling his stomach like a malcontent snake in too small a cage. The drama student did his best to send that energy across the bonfire in Gan Ning's direction, hoping that perhaps his negative emotions would peg the cowboy between the eyes and send him sprawling—in case that didn't work, though, he followed up with his voice, keeping it sweet in spite of the words.

"Unfortunately, Greta, I've got to go live with a big ugly troll and four noisy troublemakers, because some girl decided not to show up for summer camp this year," Ling Tong replied, patting her head as his false singsong echoed across the circle." But don't worry—the troll doesn't eat people, it just gets on their last nerve every time it opens its mouth. So as long as I gag it, I'll probably survive."

There. The drama student sat back in his seat, a satisfied smile creasing his lips. Even if his metaphysical energy bullet hadn't socked Gan Ning in the gut, his words should have been sharp enough to do marginal damage. Unless the cowboy's armor was as thick as his skull…

Despite the harsh response, Gan Ning didn't budge, staring straight into Ling Tong's eyes with unnerving concentration. Lu Xun's expression was instantly overtaken by worried guilt, and Sun Ce whistled low under his breath, as though in admiration of the acid tongue the drama student had spent years developing. But ultimately, his creative stab was lost on its intended listener, who looked up at him with big childhood eyes and little comprehension.

"No!"

Greta, who appeared to have extracted a 'yes' from his answer and nothing else, threw herself forward into Ling Tong's arms, clutching his shirt and pressing against his startled chest.

"You can't go, Mr. Queenie! We like having you as a counselor. And you promised to teach us to be actresses!"

"Somethin' he knows plenty about," Gan Ning scoffed, leaning back on his hands and chewing idly on a piece of grass, and Sun Ce snickered, many of the young campers laughing with him.

Ling Tong's eyes shot up to find Gan Ning's, his stare now the one growing heavy with indignation—but long before he reply, Cheng Pu rose and put up his hands, sending his nephew a sharp look that the drama student was fairly sure included a lecture about his earlier comments.

"Now, now, you two."

The manager glanced between both boys for a moment as though expecting an apology; but Ling Tong was certainly not backing down, and Gan Ning only looked away, kicking a stray piece of firewood with one displeased boot. Cheng Pu sighed, and his fingers brushed the stubble at his chin, a nervous habit more pronounced for the infrequency of his shaving in the past week. At last he turned to meet Ling Tong's gaze, choosing to pacify his mouthy nephew rather than dealing with the moody cowboy across the circle.

"Tong, maybe this would be a good time to show them a few things. I'm sure we'd all like to learn, if you're willing."

The drama student froze in his seat, and he was suddenly far more aware of the sixty odd pairs of eyes that were fixed on him, each measuring his response to the gentle suggestion. Ling Tong swallowed harder than he would have liked. He glanced up at his uncle, briefly registering the smile that looked a little forced at the corners; then his gaze swept the gathering, taking in the eager looks on the girls' faces and the waiting smirks on several of the counselors'.

It wasn't that he couldn't do it. Ling Tong was a good actor, and he knew it—so did everyone who'd seen him perform, which probably didn't include many of the ruffians gathered here. He'd even earned the Junior Dramatic Excellence Award the summer before, and acted in front of an audience much bigger than this to get it. It was just that he'd never before performed for a crowd so chock full of delinquents, children, and short attention spans…

"Oh, this should be good."

Not to mention the hecklers.

Sun Ce cackled, sitting forward in his seat and giving Ling Tong the devil's own smile. "Well? Let's see it, Queenie. You've been bragging about it since you got here, anyway. Might as well start walking your talk."

Ling Tong crossed his arms over his chest, keeping a pout from his face only with extreme concentration. "I'm not sure why I should bother for somebody like you. You're just going to be laughing the whole time, anyway."

Camp Wu's juvenile dictator grinned shamelessly at him, amber eyes glistening with the crackling flames between them. "I'm only gonna laugh if you deserve it. So don't screw up, and we won't have a problem."

The drama student scoffed, getting to his feet and brushing the splinters of the tree trunk bench from his jeans. "Deserve it? Who are you to judge whether I'm doing a good job or not? You couldn't appreciate art if it were shoved down your throat."

Which wasn't a bad idea, really. A few paintings crammed into the mouthy teenager's jaw would probably do wonders for keeping him quiet…

"Just get on with it, girly. Nobody likes ta hear ya whine."

Ling Tong bristled, and he pivoted to glare at Gan Ning instead, wishing he could rip the condescending amusement right off the irritating cowboy's face. But Cheng Pu reached out to grab his shoulder, and the drama student settled for a huff, dodging his uncle's grasp and reaching up to secure his ponytail instead.

"Fine, fine. On one condition. Lu Meng, Zhou Yu—if either of them tries to say anything, shut them up, got it?"

Lu Meng only blinked at the harsh demand, and Zhou Yu's stone-cold eyes said plainly that he did not take orders, and that he would be silencing his loud companion only when it pleased him. But the drama student didn't wait for the bad-tempered counselors to call his bluff—he leaned down until he was face to face with Greta, and he gave the little girl a smile, covering his frustration with years of stage practice.

"So, what do you want to act out, Greta?"

Greta's eyes widened, the excitement making her face seem yet more childish. "You mean… we get to do something right now? In front of everybody?"

Ling Tong laughed a little, shrugging under his lilting ponytail. "Sure, if you like. I can't teach you a whole play right now, or anything, but we could work through a story. It's good practice."

Greta turned to consult with the other girls, and when she turned back there was an element of concern on her innocent face, darkening the eyes that had been so bright before. Ling Tong blinked at the sudden change in expression, and he leaned closer to study the girl's face, squinting a little through the dim firelight.

"Huh? What's the matter?"

Greta settled both small hands against her hips, biting her lip as though in serious thought. "We all want to be the princess, Mr. Queenie. But we can't think of a play with four princesses in it."

Ling Tong straightened a little, flushing lightly as a current of trepidation went through his stomach. "You know, I don't really know much about playing a princess—" the boy started, but he was cut off by a series of laughs from the other side of the fire, unmistakably Sun Ce's and Gan Ning's.

"Sure ya do," Gan Ning encouraged through his chuckle, and though he was turned away Ling Tong could practically see the humor glowing in the cowboy's features, only enhanced by Sun Ce's reply.

"You've been acting like a princess ever since you got here!" the insufferable dictator called, and Ling Tong wheeled to glare at him, not at all surprised to see a half-moon grin lighting his arrogant face. Sun Ce pressed one hand against his forehead, leaning back into Zhou Yu's shoulder as his voice shot up an octave in pantomime. "It's too hot! I hate bugs! You're all so mean to me! Why do I have to spend my summer in a terrible place like this?"

Lu Meng and Zhou Yu were definitely not doing their jobs. The majority of the campers had begun to snigger, and Ling Tong could feel his cheeks growing warm again, the insulting portrayal and the public ridicule narrowing his eyes. The drama student opened his mouth to give a sharp retort, his tongue preparing a dagger for each of the chortling counselors—but just before he spoke, something stopped him, and Ling Tong paused in his weighted silence, his gaze fixed on a different point around the circle.

It wasn't like he cared or anything. He didn't. He hated all the delinquents at Camp Wu, and he wasn't interested in being friends with any of them—even the nicer ones. But Lu Xun, whose face had been creased with worry and pain just a few moments before, was laughing behind an upraised hand, trying to stifle the giggles that were sweeping the large gathering. And somehow, though the boy was friends with Gan Ning and therefore an enemy, the drama student found that he didn't want to disrupt the happiness that had been absent from Lu Xun's face all day, in spite of the indignation still running rampant in his stomach.

It wasn't like he cared. It was probably just because Lu Xun had looked so pitiful earlier, and because he was about to become Gan Ning's partner himself, no doubt likely to end up in Lu Xun's shoes when the cowboy's carelessness got the better of him…

Though it was the hardest thing he'd done in the course of his short life, Ling Tong bit his tongue, reeling back the poisoned words from the edge of his lips and swallowing them. To keep a rein on his temper, he turned back to the little girls, trying not to lose patience with their big, wavering eyes.

"Well, let's think. There must be a story with a lot of princesses somewhere…"

"I think yeh'd make a great Cind'rella," Gan Ning volunteered, and Lu Meng snorted beside him, joining the conversation though he didn't seem to be getting any particular joy out of tormenting the drama student.

"More like a reverse Cinderella. I haven't seen him doing any laundry."

If Ling Tong had not been holding his tongue so hard that he was actually biting it, he would have retorted that he had done more than his fair share of chores since arriving at Camp Wu, thank you very much—and that if he _had_ been a girl, as everyone was constantly implying, he'd have been royally pissed about the way his hands were drying out and cracking. But he realized immediately that it would be a pretty girly thing to say, all things considered, and so he kept his mouth shut, focusing on Greta's face with such intensity that he was surprised he didn't burn a hole in the girl's forehead.

"How about—"

"Sleeping Beauty!" Sun Ce interrupted, thrusting one fist high into the air; and then he reconsidered, his upraised hand returning to rub at his thoughtful chin. "No, wait—I meant Snow White. Then the kids could play the dwarves."

The little girls looked up at Ling Tong with horror in their eyes, and the drama student glared at Sun Ce for a moment before his gaze swept the pack of counselors, even the nicer of whom couldn't help chuckling along with the vast expanse of campers. If it was dwarves he wanted, Ling Tong had them all picked out already: Mouthy, Mousy, Bouncy, Bossy, Bully, and Bad-Haircut… and too many Grumpys to choose from.

"Sleepin' Beauty wouldn' be so bad, either," Gan Ning mused, stretching both arms behind his head and sending the fuming drama student a lazy smirk. "Least he'd be quiet fer most of it. 'Cept then somebody'd have ta kiss 'im—might be tough getting' anyone ta do that."

Once again a chorus of giggles sped through the campers, the little boys making gagging motions and the girls whispering behind their hands. Ling Tong gritted his teeth. Hadn't Gan Ning said earlier that day that he_didn't_ hate him? Why was he teasing this badly, then? And couldn't his uncle see that this was hazing? The drama student felt his hands balling into fists, summoned by the frustration and indignation that were racing through him. Why had he agreed to do this in the first place? It was just another excuse for his fellow counselors to pick on him.

Ling Tong closed his eyes, trying his best to stay calm. He just needed a story. Any stupid story would do at this point—what did it matter if there were enough princesses to go around? The drama student couldn't hold his tongue for another minute of this…

Sun Ce leaned forward in his seat, one arm leaning on Zhou Yu's shoulder to steady his excited movement. "I've got it this time! It's perfect. He could be—"

"Peter Pan!"

The teenage dictator stopped abruptly, startled by the interruption that also brought silence to the rest of the gathering, all eyes focused on the teen who had shouted. Ling Tong took a moment to compose himself, and then he brushed his bangs back out of his eyes and repeated his decision, this time not in a full-out shout.

"We can do Peter Pan. It's pretty easy, and I've done that one before. Anyone got a problem with that?"

Ling Tong tried to make his tone as menacing as possible, and his gaze flew like fire between Sun Ce and Gan Ning, daring either of them to contradict his choice. But in the end, it was Greta who spoke up, shifting her feet as though afraid to make her former counselor angrier.

"But… but Mr. Queenie, Peter Pan doesn't have _any_ princesses in it."

When had these children gotten so particular? Ling Tong had agreed to give them acting tips—shouldn't that earn him just a little bit of gratitude? Sure, he'd asked them to pick the story, but since they hadn't, what right did they have to complain now? The drama student should have abandoned these picky campers and their cackling counselors to each others' company a long time ago. Then maybe they'd find someone else to beat up on…

Greta's question inspired a brief, strained silence, and Ling Tong wondered very seriously if he were going to lose control of his tongue this time—and then suddenly Shang Xiang laughed and came to his rescue, leaning down to pat the girls on their worried heads.

"No princesses, but there were mermaids," the young woman reminded them, smiling in a way that made Ling Tong think she was destined to have a whole pack of children. "Would that be close enough?"

Instantly, all the frowns disappeared from his campers' expressions, and the girls looked up at the drama student with shining eyes, pictures of flashing tails and seashell jewelry practically painted on their eager faces. "You can teach us to be mermaids, Mr. Queenie?" Greta breathed, her voice nearly a whisper with unchecked awe, and Ling Tong felt a tingle of horror sliding down his spine, cold like the stars twinkling so far above him.

He had no idea how to act out a mermaid—nor did he relish the idea of flopping around in the dirt like a kind of beached fish in front of all these people. But that wasn't what had made his eyes so wide. It was the commentary he could just _feel_ coming from the other side of the circle—

"Eh… I don' know, girly."

Ling Tong's back went stiff at the words, and he turned to face Gan Ning with a tight frown—an expression that countered the delinquent's own, which was a smile wide enough to seem unbalanced on his face. Gan Ning shook his head a little, and he shrugged as he looked the drama student up and down, one casual hand resting against the ground behind him.

"I jus' can't see you pullin' off the shell bra."

Oh, that was it. That was so _it_!

As the laughter all around him spiked to a new uproarious high and all the blood in his body rushed to Ling Tong's face, what little remained of his temper snapped, left to flutter like a frayed ribbon inside his uneven heartbeat. For the first time all night, the drama student found that he was speechless—speechless because so many angry words were building up behind his lips that he couldn't even start to put them in the right order. Ling Tong stared at the guilty party, and then he gritted his teeth, glaring daggers at the older boy through the dim firelight.

This was all Gan Ning's fault. Everything was Gan Ning's fault. If the ragtag excuse for a cowboy hadn't taken such a dislike to him the first day, if he'd taken better care of Lu Xun on their ride, if he hadn't started the jabs with such ferocity tonight…

It was definitely time for some payback.

Forcing embarrassment and anger back down into his stomach, Ling Tong rounded on the counselor in question, stalking past the fire with the stride and determination of a practiced assassin. Cheng Pu had been trying to silence the children's laughter—a pathetic attempt to shield his nephew's feelings that should have started much earlier, in Ling Tong's view—and he tried to stop the boy now, impeding his warpath with two raised hands.

"Tong, calm down. It was only a joke—"

But the drama student breezed past him without so much as hesitating, and in a few more steps he had reached Gan Ning's seat, pulling the cowboy's eyes with him as he moved. Gan Ning raised an eyebrow, obviously waiting for a screaming accusation, but Ling Tong only kicked a marshmallow stick at him and stepped back, choosing one of his own from the littered dirt.

"Get up."

The cowboy blinked, one hand reaching up to scratch his broom-styled head. "Huh? What d'ya want?"

Ling Tong huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I need help demonstrating something. Just get up already. I've already had enough of your lip tonight."

Gan Ning hesitated a moment, looking between the stick and the drama student who was glowing with irritation in front of him, and then slowly got to his feet, lifting the marshmallow roaster with one uncertain hand.

"I don' think I'm really cut out ta be a mermaid, girly," the cowboy tried, but Ling Tong cut him off, turning back to the gaggle of little girls and the majority of the campers with a vindictive frown on his face.

"I'll teach you how to act out a mermaid in a minute, Greta. But first I want to show you something we can _all_ enjoy." Ling Tong turned back to his rival and moved backward a little farther, until he was standing perhaps two lengths of the stick from his unsuspecting opponent. "Which is why Gan Ning's going to play Captain Hook, and we're going to try a little stage fencing."

An inhale of awe went up from the assembled campers, and the boys stretched forward in their seats, leaning over each others' shoulders to get a better look at the swordfight about to take place. Ling Tong moved easily into a fighter's stance, weeks of training before _The Musketeers_ guiding his steady feet—but Gan Ning didn't move, studying the stick in his hand as though it might bite him the moment he took his eyes away.

"I don' know about this, girly," Gan Ning replied after a moment, one eye half-closed in consideration. "This thing could do some real damage. I wouldn' wan'ta put an eye out o'that pretty head o'yers."

Ling Tong scoffed, flicking the strands of his ponytail back over one haughty shoulder. "You scared?" Gan Ning shook his head.

"Fine. Have it yer way. Jus' don't cry when you lose."

Ling Tong had taken just as much of the other boy's cocky attitude as he could handle, and he stepped forward into a quick lunge, giving his opponent a sharp poke along the line of his buttons. Gan Ning staggered back a step, taken by surprise at the sudden movement—then he raised his own stick, and the two began to spar, makeshift weapons clacking between them.

All around him, Ling Tong could hear their audience beginning to shout, cheers for Captain Hook or Peter Pan soaring alternately through the starlit air. The noise rushed over him in waves, sharpening his adrenaline and the dexterity of his steps—but the drama student didn't spare even a glance to see who was rooting for whom, all his attention focused on his sparring partner.

Gan Ning was a total jerk—an arrogant, mouthy jerk, and Ling Tong was definitely going to teach him a lesson.

The cowboy had a little skill with his stick, and for a few moments he moved evenly with the more experienced boy across from him. But there was no substitute for training, and soon Ling Tong could feel that the balance had shifted in his favor; he was the one advancing now, and Gan Ning could do nothing but retreat, stumbling to keep his footing on the uneven ground. He was still waving his stick quite a bit, but the motions were wide and left Ling Tong uncountable openings—many of which he took, striking his rival with deadly accuracy, each touch of his marshmallow-covered weapon a mosquito bite on his opponent's skin.

"C'mon, Captain Hook! Don't lose to a pansy like that!"

"You teach him, Peter Pan!"

Ling Tong smirked a little, tossing his head to shake the lingering bangs out of his eyes. Gan Ning may have won the verbal contest earlier, but this match was completely in his favor—nothing the cowboy could do would turn it around now. All that was left was to find a suitable conclusion…

They had been moving steadily backward as the spar progressed, and suddenly Ling Tong realized that they were approaching the woodpile, massive trunks and branches sticking out at all odd angles. Gan Ning seemed completely unaware of the obstacle just behind him, and by the time the jumble of waiting firewood registered in the drama student's mind he was already halfway into a lunge, too far committed to pull back. But the cowboy's foot was mere inches from a log; if he stepped back now—

"Watch—"

With a strangled expletive and a tremendous crash, Gan Ning lost his footing, careening back into the brush pile with his arms limp and useless above him. Ling Tong's eyes widened as his rival collapsed into the kindling, and the entire gathering let out a gasp of surprise, the managers starting to their feet in concern. The drama student came to a dead halt, eyes wide with shock at the abrupt collapse, and the stick fell out of his hand, leaving his fingers free to cover his mouth.

Oh no. No way. He would never hear the end of it if the stupid cowboy had hurt himself…

Gan Ning blinked up at his rival, and Ling Tong blinked back, too startled even to comment on the limbs sprawled out before him. But it was only a moment before someone took the verbal punch out of his hands—laughter hurtled toward them from some distance to the left, and Ling Tong turned to see that Sun Ce had doubled over clutching his stomach, the force of his amusement almost propelling him off the bench. The urge to laugh gradually overtook the remainder of the gathering as well, and soon even Cheng Pu was shaking his head, one hand pressed to a nervous forehead.

"Tong… oh, lord, what am I going to do with you two…"

Ling Tong felt the small current of worry within him melting away, and he straightened in his stance, hands falling to his hip in a pose of unaffected triumph.

"Ha… guess you should have been more careful when you picked who to lose to, Gan Ning," the drama student snipped, tossing his ponytail back as his eyes returned to his opponent. "I'm a little tough for people just learning how to walk."

Not to mention people who insisted on sparring in cowboy boots.

Gan Ning looked up at him in silence for a long moment, his messy hair littering his face and no small number of scratches doing the same to his tan skin. Then the cowboy was getting to his feet—and there was something about his eyes that made the drama student hesitate, his mouth partway open in preparation for another jab. It was a feeling of focus that Ling Tong wasn't sure he'd ever seen in the other boy's gaze before…

Gan Ning brushed the twigs and clumps of dirt from his body, and then he shot Ling Tong a smile—not exactly a nice smile, though the drama student held his ground. The cowboy shook his head a little, running one brown hand through his hair.

"You know, girly… I don' really feel like I've lost yet. Sure, yer a better fencer than I am—I'll give yeh that. But if you didn' have a stick…"

Now Ling Tong did take a step back, matching his rival's forward movement as his startled voice broke through the warm summer air. "H-hey, wait a minute. I didn't say we were having a wrestling match or anything. I said—"

But Gan Ning didn't give him a chance to finish, leaping at him with a force that shot adrenaline back through Ling Tong's veins and unbalanced his anxious feet against the ground, scattering him sideways out of the older boy's reach. The campers erupted into laughter and yells from every side, and suddenly the drama student found that he was running circles around the campfire, desperate to evade the footsteps that were just behind him and the _whish_ of air from those pursuing hands.

How had this happened? He'd had the confrontation totally under control, and supreme victory in the bag—trust Gan Ning to break all the rules.

One swipe came particularly close to catching Ling Tong's forearm, and he spun away on a dexterous heel, glaring at his pursuer with wide, startled eyes. "Hey! Knock it off!" Ling Tong's shout echoed across the gathering, gaining strength as it rebounded against the encircling trees but doing nothing to deter his assailant. "I'm not playing tag, Gan Ning! Leave me alo—"

It must have been karma. Ling Tong didn't know what he'd done to deserve it—but there was his own fencing stick, and there was his foot, getting tangled around the former and plummeting him straight for the ground. The drama student squeezed his eyes shut, both arms rising to shield his face as he headed backward for the ground, an unintentional cry escaping his throat.

Phenomenal. The only thing that had been missing from his perfect night was a badly broken neck—

Ling Tong hit the ground a moment later, his feet struggling as they lost their grip on the earth and flew into the air in a shower of dirt; but he didn't land quite the way he'd expected, and for a moment the drama student could only blink, staring into the unfamiliar fabric suspended above him. His arms were pressed against his chest, and he had landed on his back—but there was something behind his head, something soft that had protected it from the packed earth of the campground's clearing.

It took Ling Tong a moment to discern that the object beneath his head was a hand—and then he glanced up and found that there was a face above him to match it, almost more jarring than the fall itself.

Gan Ning's face, and the fabric of his shirt. Resting above him on one steady hand.

The drama student gaped in silence for a moment, and then he gave the other boy a hard shove to the chest, pushing Gan Ning's small smirk and satisfied eyes out of his personal space. Ling Tong pulled himself into a sitting position and scooted away from his rival turned rescuer, anger and embarrassment flushing his face once again.

"Y-you… what are you doing?" Ling Tong snapped, curling away from the amused cowboy. Gan Ning must have fallen with him—but had the cowboy tripped over his feet, too, or had he fallen on purpose? The drama student shook his head, one hand reaching up to feel the back of his skull. "Why did you do that?"

His voice was furious, louder for the laughter pouring into his ears from every direction. But Gan Ning was unfazed, only smiling back at him with a lopsided grin—and to his immense surprise, Ling Tong found that this wasn't the smile he had seen and hated so often on the cowboy's face. It reminded him more of the smile Gan Ning had given him on the first day they met, before all the bad blood started between them: not mocking, but only playful, and maybe even a little charming, had it been someone else's…

"Didn' I tell ya, girly?" Gan Ning chuckled, reaching out to muss the drama student's hair. "Wouldn' want anything to damage that pretty head o'yers."

Ling Tong pulled back from the contact, half inclined to take the comment as another insult. But the patch of his skull that Gan Ning's hand had shielded was still tingling, warm with the touch he had never expected…

"Queenie's it!"

Sun Ce's shout sent a yell of joy through the restless campers; many of the children shot to their feet, and the scampered away into the darkness of the summer night, more than ready for a game of tag after sitting for so long. But for the moment, Ling Tong found that he couldn't move at all—he was too busy staring at Gan Ning's smile, and wondering why the expression was sending a very different kind of shiver down his spine.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Whiny brat. You really are. But it's sorta funny to see that look on your face—staring at me like you've never seen me before, when we've been at each other's throats for a whole week now._

_I didn't mean to save you. I thought a bump to the head might do you some serious good. But you looked so scared of the ground, like you were made of glass or somethin'… I couldn't let you fall like that._

_You're still a real pain. You're gonna be an even bigger pain now, since we're teaming up. I know you'll still hate me when you wake up in the morning, and you'll still act like a spoiled little girl, like the whole world moves around you._

_That's not the weird part. The weird part is that, after playing with you like this tonight…_

_I can't decide if that's really as bad as I thought it was._

End Chapter 11


	12. Chapter 12

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

A/N: This chapter took too long, and I don't really have any excuses, given how short it is. All I can say is that classwork hasn't given me much time to write lately. And in other news, this story is now over 100 pages long in Microsoft Word, proving definitively that I can't write short pieces, no matter how much I try.

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There was something off this morning. Ling Tong hadn't even opened his eyes yet, and the world at large was nothing more than the bleary imprint of sunshine on his eyelids, but he knew something was strange.

He couldn't place the feeling, exactly. In a way, it felt like something was pushing down on his chest, but in another way it was his head that felt out of sync, thick and muddled as though there were a smell surrounding him that he couldn't shake. Ling Tong frowned and his forehead wrinkled in response, but he kept his eyes closed, staring into the yellow darkness as he turned the feeling over in his mind.

It could have been his stomach. He hadn't had anything other than marshmallows to eat in at least twelve hours, and the camp food suited his palate about once every six meals anyway. The drama student wouldn't have been one bit surprised to learn that he was medically starving, considering the menagerie of barely edible fare he'd been encouraged to put in his mouth over the last week.

Or it could have been his skin. Even without touching his face, Ling Tong could tell there was something strangely tight and dry about it this morning—which wasn't at all surprising, really, considering how many hours he'd been asked to spend outside playing with brats of all shapes and sizes. Sure, his uncle had carefully reminded him about sunscreen every time they exchanged words, but the drama student hated the oily residue that sunblock left on his face, and he used it as little as possible. So dying of early onset skin cancer was also not out of the question.

If he didn't make it through the summer, Ling Tong wanted "It wasn't my idea" carved on his tombstone. Just so there was no confusion about _why_ he'd been sentenced to death in the upper regions of hell.

In the end, there was only one thing Ling Tong was sure the feeling _wasn't_ about. It had absolutely nothing to do with the preceding night. Well, maybe the marshmallows. But not the rest of it. Not the long game of tag, or the round of charades that had followed, and certainly not the fleeting feeling he'd had at one point—the first time in a week—that maybe he wasn't in the last place on earth he would ever choose to spend his time.

He still didn't like it. Camp Wu was a dirty, barbaric hole in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by delinquents and small children who needed almost equal amounts of supervision. But when Cheng Pu had finally managed to calm all of the restless boys down and circle the group around the campfire again, and they had moved into a game of charades instead, Ling Tong had found that his fellow counselors—even Camp Wu's resident dictator—could be marginally bearable when their energy was directed at some pursuit other than tormenting him.

And if he'd enjoyed the game at all, it was mostly because someone had slipped Sun Ce's name into the card pool, and it had been his good fortune to draw it, and the subsequent mockery had done a little to heal the wounds that the delinquent's tongue had been giving him all night.

And maybe watching Lu Meng try to get the kids to say _The Wizard of Oz_ had been a little funny, mostly because the bad-tempered bear had stood like a stone with his arms crossed, and the boys had insisted that he was playacting a totem pole. And maybe things had gotten a little better when the Qiao sisters agreed to show the little girls to act out mermaids, and he'd been given the more dignified role of teaching stage fencing, which had at least given him an opportunity to jab all of his fellow counselors with a stick a few times. And maybe Gan Ning had said something that the drama student couldn't decide whether to take as an insult or a compliment, and was undecided even now.

"_Heh. Wha'dya know, girly. Turns out you do smile when yeh're not laughin' at people."_

It wasn't a big deal, or anything. Way less than a big deal. No deal at all. It was just unnerving, because Ling Tong had been noticing Gan Ning's smile himself—noticing it because the broom-headed cowboy didn't seem to be laughing at anyone, either, and it made such a difference in his expression…

Ling Tong shook his head a little, his neck unusually stiff against the lumpy pillow. Not that he hated Gan Ning any less for it. Not that he hated any of them less. And the feeling had nothing to do with that, anyway. Not unless exposure to the company of the lowest rung of society's rabble had really started to make him physically ill, at least.

He couldn't rule it out.

"Hey… Queenie?"

It was a young voice addressing him, which was the only reason Ling Tong refrained from chucking his pillow in the direction that the insulting nickname had come from. It didn't sound like one of the girls, though, and it took him a minute to remember that he'd spent the night in his new cabin, in the company of Gan Ning's troublemaking tater tots.

The drama student groaned internally. This was where hell truly began—activities with Gan Ning, meals with Gan Ning, and a babysitting charge for four little demons that were absolutely doomed to grow up just like the ragtag cowboy at their head. Or like Sun Ce, perhaps. If only there were a way to head it off early…

"Queenie? Are you listening to me?"

Ling Tong tried to scowl, but his face was too tight to form the expression properly. Now that he listened more carefully, he could hear more than one voice; the others were hushed to whispers, along with a running giggle that he immediately disliked. Ling Tong sighed and cleared his throat, though it still seemed better to lie where he was than to bother sitting up.

"What do you need?" the drama student replied, trying to steady his croaky morning voice.

There was a shift away to his left, as though the boy were adjusting his position, and then the curious voice came again, muffled a little now like there was something in the child's mouth.

"Can you see like that?"

Ling Tong tried to open his eyes in response, but somehow it just seemed easier to leave them shut, so he settled for a sharp frown instead. He was probably just tired, in which case the brat could blame himself—the bonfire had gone on quite long enough in Ling Tong's opinion, but of course the boys in his cabin had run around like juvenile monkeys for a good half hour later than all the other campers. Trust Gan Ning's batch to be evil incarnate…

"Can you, Queenie? See like that?"

Ling Tong gritted his teeth. "Like what?" the drama student asked, beginning to feel decidedly annoyed about the conversation. The boy shifted again.

"You know. With whipped cream all over your face."

Ling Tong's eyes shot open, revealing a world bordered in gobs of white ready to tumble down into his startled pupils at any moment. The drama student struggled to sit up, but the motion was impossible, and his arms weren't working properly either. Ling Tong twisted onto one side, and suddenly a whole web of yarn appeared in his field of vision, the green and red strings wound around both of his sleeves until they looked like works of tapestry.

Ling Tong did not scream. He would maintain that until the day he died. But the sight of all that yarn wrapped around and around his unsteady cot, secured to the blankets with what seemed to be pools of dripping honey, combined with the heartbeat racing inside his chest, did wrench a sound of some kind from his throat—and with it, the drama student began to thrash, fighting the cocoon of string with useless, hogtied limbs.

"What the—"

Ling Tong's voice stopped abruptly as he lost his balance and tumbled out of the cot, still caught in the strings so that his arms and legs were dragged up toward the mattress, leaving him helpless on his back. The drama student couldn't be sure exactly what his fall upset, but a flurry of water balloons cascaded down from the ceiling, and in his compromised position Ling Tong could do nothing but yelp as each one splashed the whipped cream and honey from his ruined pajamas.

"A little help would be nice!" the drama student spat at his campers, but they stayed where they were on an upper bunk, passing a Snickers bar between them. The boy who had woken him shrugged.

"We can't get on the floor, Queenie. It's got molasses on it. Besides, he gave us this Snickers bar if we promised not to get in the way."

_He._ Ling Tong didn't even have to ask who the boy meant. There was only one person in the entire camp who would do something like this to him—one bigmouthed jerk of a delinquent who'd borrowed his hairstyle from a clump of weeds…

Ling Tong stilled his back against the wet, sticky floor, taking a huge breath in spite of his discomfort and his anger and his frustration and all the other emotions swirling in his stomach. Then he let out a yell that rattled the walls of the cabin around him and careened out the screen door to echo like a demon's screech through the thin mountain air.

"_Gan Ning!_"

In a way, it seemed like asking for it to yell from such a compromising position, knowing that all sorts of people would come running. But Ling Tong didn't care. He was going to rip Gan Ning to shreds—and the sooner the cowboy's ugly mug appeared in his doorway, the sooner it could be separated from its body.

The boys on the top bunk had begun to giggle, and Ling Tong could hear all manner of voices starting to go up outside the cabin, the great hum like a swarm of curious bees sending another angry shiver down his spine. Then came the pounding of running footsteps and a voice that dove straight for his last nerve, the heavy boot heels shaking the floor beneath him.

"All right, girly, what's all the shoutin' for—"

The screen door screeched open, and then there was a sound that Ling Tong hadn't been expecting—a slip, a crash and a muffled curse as Gan Ning lost his footing in a pool of molasses and hurtled into an overstuffed dresser. The cowboy clutched the splintering wood with startled fingers and looked wide-eyed at Ling Tong, his uncombed bangs trailing into his face, and the drama student felt a jolt of surprise vibrating through his stomach, leaving his muscles limp as he exchanged stares with his nemesis.

Gan Ning had slipped, obviously expecting nothing but dry wood on the other side of the door. He'd come running at the drama student's call, and though he was awake now his bedhead proved that he'd rolled off his cot only at the sound of his name. Most importantly, he wasn't laughing, and that alone was enough to push Ling Tong's eyes as wide as they could go in his cream-covered face.

Gan Ning wasn't laughing. Did that mean… he really hadn't done this?

Gan Ning ran a hand through his messy hair, taking one careful step and then another toward the trapped drama student on the floor. "What the hell happen'd, girly?" he asked at last, putting one knee down into the molasses as he reached for his belt. "Some kind'a sugar bomb go off in here?"

Ling Tong huffed, glaring twice as hard at the twisted yarn so he didn't have to meet Gan Ning's eyes. "Just hurry up and untie me, okay?" the drama student snapped, writhing against his string prison. But the cowboy put out a hand and held him still, freeing a knife from his pocket and slicing through the lengths of yarn one at a time.

"Easy there. Don' want ta cut ya. Yeh'll be free in a minute, so jus' hold yer horses."

Ling Tong scoffed, laying his head back onto the floor and wincing as he felt the thick molasses sliding across his neck and through his ponytail. "Carry a knife even when you sleep, huh, Gan Ning? You're really into this whole Davy Crockett thing, aren't you?"

Gan Ning smirked, the expression far less smug than the drama student had expected. "Ya never know when it's goin' ta come in handy," the boy offered, pulling a clump of brown and yellow yarn from his rival's crinkled fingers. And Ling Tong found that he had no snarky reply to give, evidence as he currently was of the statement's prudence.

At last the yarn fell away from them in curtains of crystallizing sugar, and Gan Ning helped the drenched, slimy drama student to his feet, one arm reaching around his waist to help maintain his balance. Any other time, Ling Tong would have pushed the cowboy away as fast as possible. But since he wasn't positive he could walk through the muck on his own, Ling Tong held back, settling for a sharp comment instead.

"I think those clothes of yours are going to be completely ruined after this. Not that they weren't filthy already."

Gan Ning glanced down at his wrinkled pajamas, and then raised an eyebrow, flicking a dollop of whipped cream from his companion's sleeve. "I don't think yeh're really in a position ta be jabbin' at my state a'cleanliness, girly," he said. Ling Tong felt heat rising in his cheeks, but he ducked his head and kept the color to himself.

"You boys stay here," Gan Ning called as they moved carefully across the floor, and the giggling children gave some kind of affirmative, though Ling Tong could practically see the horns growing on their heads and doubted the validity of their word. What kind of kids would let their group leader be sabotaged in his sleep without giving so much as an offhand warning?

As they approached the door to the cabin, Ling Tong could again hear the murmur of conversation outside, and he hesitated on the threshold, suddenly realizing exactly what he was going to look like when he stepped out into the clearing. But Gan Ning wasn't interested in waiting for a change of clothes, and he dragged his companion through the door before the drama student could even protest, revealing them to the sunlight and a collective gasp that seemed to suck all the oxygen out of the thin mountain air.

Ling Tong squeezed his eyes shut, listening to the tremendous silence that had overtaken the camp at his appearance. He was never going to live this down, not even if he crawled under a log and stayed there for the rest of the summer—

"That's priceless, Queenie!"

Ling Tong gritted his teeth, lifting his head to glower at the source of the call and accompanying laughter. Sun Ce was doubled over holding his stomach, evil cackles just braying from his grinning mouth, and behind him stood Taishi Ci and Lu Meng, one holding a gigantic tub of molasses and the other with a can of whipped cream and honey balanced on either hip. Zhou Yu stood beside them, but his hands were empty and he looked distinctly annoyed by his companions' amusement.

The drama student noticed that the managers were all conspicuously absent, but otherwise the entire population of the camp had gathered to stare at him. Maybe Sun Ce had even organized them himself, just to make a bigger spectacle.

Sun Ce leaned back on his heels to study his victim—yes, Ling Tong was positive now who the _real_ culprit was—and the smile was unstoppable on his sunshine face.

"Anybody got milk?" the boy laughed, and Taishi Ci chuckled, crossing satisfied arms over his chest. Lu Meng only snorted, gesturing dismissively toward the dripping pair on the porch.

"It's going to take more than milk to clean all that up."

If there was any skin showing on his face at all, Ling Tong knew it was beet red, flaming with embarrassment and anger as he faced the openly guilty counselors at the foot of the porch steps. He should have known from the beginning. A hazing ritual this wretched could only have come from Camp Wu's little dictator, demon-spawn that he was.

Sun Ce cupped his hands to his mouth and his shout soared across the camp, drawing the eyes of every counselor and student to his beaming face. "Consider this your official welcome to Camp Wu, Queenie. We wanted to do this earlier, but we were worried you might kill somebody… so congrats! You're finally part of the gang!"

Ling Tong stared at the excited counselor with his jaw hanging down, indignation overtaking his cream-doused expression. _This_ was what made him part of the gang? Public humiliation and an absolutely ruined set of clothes? And where was his good-for-nothing uncle at a time like this?

"Well? Any words for the group?" Sun Ce asked at last, his hands falling back to his side. The boy was still smiling, but there was something curious about his face, as though the hush of the startled campground had drawn on far longer than he'd expected.

Ling Tong opened his mouth to give Sun Ce a piece of his mind, but he found that he had nothing to say, a fact that surprised him almost as much as the cowboy beside him. Gan Ning was watching him through the silence—the drama student could feel that gaze on his face, combined with another sixty odd stares. But he simply had no words for the feeling inside of him, a hopeless knot of frustration and anger and something else he couldn't understand.

It was that last emotion that truly kept him speechless. The only thing he could remember that felt remotely similar was when he'd made friends with a kid in the high school chorus who later put live crickets into his locker, and had never spoken to him again without laughing in his face.…

But there was a world of difference between the two. There had to be. Because he didn't like any of Camp Wu's counselors, and if he didn't like them there was no way it could hurt to be betrayed.

Gan Ning watched him for a moment longer, and then the cowboy turned to face the assembly, focusing on Sun Ce in particular. His voice, when it came, was lower than Ling Tong expected, but it seemed angry somehow, as though Gan Ning had swallowed a coal and was slowly grinding it to dust in his throat.

"Nobody told me 'bout this."

Sun Ce laughed, brushing chaotic bangs out of his eyes. "Well, yeah. After last night, we were pretty sure you wouldn't wanna help anyway, Texas."

Ling Tong blinked, watching Gan Ning out of the corner of his eye. Last night? Did Sun Ce mean their stage fencing adventure, or did the insufferable little dictator know something he didn't?

Silence followed his fading answer, and Sun Ce shrugged, waving one apologetic hand as though to brush all of the cowboy's displeasure away. "Sorry to cut you out of the fun, man. Next time, okay?"

Gan Ning's lips were stiff with a frown, and Ling Tong noticed that the grip around his waist had gotten tighter, more than the congealing molasses holding him against his rival's side. The cowboy shook his head, eyes narrowing in his unusually serious face.

"That's not what I meant, T-rex," Gan Ning said, tapping the toe of his boot against the porch. "This ain't funny."

Sun Ce started at the response, and Ling Tong did the same, his heartbeat leaping a little faster in his chest. Not funny? Wasn't this kind of thing right up the unkempt cowboy's alley? If he'd been picking out troublemakers in the counseling staff, the drama student would certainly have included his cabin partner. Why wasn't Gan Ning laughing his head off with the other delinquents?

Gan Ning kept his eyes on Sun Ce but tipped his chin in Ling Tong's direction, wiping a line of honey from his well-tanned cheek. "See girly here? He woke up an' found 'imself like this, all tied up in knots with no way of gettin' out. Yeh got proof he was desperate, 'cause he was callin' fer me."

Gan Ning's expression didn't change as he spoke, but Ling Tong ducked his head a little, hoping that the whipped cream would conceal his flush. When he'd shouted Gan Ning's name, it had been an accusation, not a cry for help. And somehow the knowledge that his rival had thought of nothing but rescuing him made the drama student's stomach twist even more than it had been, as though now for some reason he could add shame to the maelstrom of emotions in his gut.

Gan Ning shifted in his stance, measuring the silence, and then he exhaled heavily, shading his eyes with a molasses-coated hand. "So go on, T-rex. Tell me one more time why this's worth celebratin'."

Ling Tong's eyes widened as far as they could go. He had to be imagining things. There was no way that Gan Ning was standing up for him.

Was there?

Sun Ce had adopted a frown, both arms crossed over his patchy t-shirt. "Sheesh, Texas—it's no big deal." The boy scuffed one tennis shoe against the ground, indicating his target with an absent gesture. "It's just a harmless prank. Besides, it's tradition. I got you last year, too, remember?"

Camp Wu's little conqueror was standing his ground, but to Ling Tong he looked well and truly confused, as though he couldn't understand why being doused with unnumbered confections and tied up in knots would be anything but thoroughly enjoyable. Then again if Sun Ce had ever been "initiated" this way, he probably _had _enjoyed it.

"When it was me, things were diff'rent, T-rex," Gan Ning returned, straightening a little. "You'all got me my first night here, so I saw it comin'. And I wasn' having any trouble fittin' in, either, so I didn' care. But girly's not like that. He's had a rough week already, with you not least ta thank for it. Yeh couldn' cut him a little slack?"

Ling Tong wasn't sure he appreciated Gan Ning's underlying assertion that he was a delicate flower likely to be squashed by any foot that came near him, especially coming from the boy who had given him so much trouble for the past week. But he appreciated it a hell of a lot more when Sun Ce opened his mouth again, defiant hands moving to his hips as his voice swallowed the clearing.

"You've gotta be kidding me! Why are you all making such a big deal about it? So he's gotta take a bath. Considering how whiny he's been about how dirty it is up here, you'd think I was doing him a favor!"

"Oh yeah—thanks a lot, Sun Ce," Ling Tong snapped, recovering his voice and his gift for sharp words at last. "Somehow, this wasn't quite the bath I had in mind."

"It'll wipe off," Sun Ce replied, making a face at the sticky counselor on the steps above him.

Ling Tong had a great backlog of insults and anger on his tongue now, and he relished the opportunity to spit them out, as his composure had finally returned—but it was an opportunity he lost, because the female counselors, whose absence he hadn't noticed until they reappeared, came running up at that moment, dragging the camp managers behind them. Shang Xiang gasped and threw her hands over her mouth, and Cheng Pu, who had been jogging behind her, almost tumbled over the frozen girl before he came to a halt, his jaw hanging loose below wide, worried eyes.

"Tong…"

The name was barely more than a breath, but it carried through the absolute silence as though it had been shouted. Behind his uncle, the drama student could see Huang Gai and Han Dang stiffening in their hiking boots, the latter manager's gaze already fixed on Camp Wu's number one troublemaker. But Cheng Pu was decidedly more interested in his nephew's welfare than in capturing the culprit, and he took a few steps forward, stopping short of the cabin steps as though an invisible barrier kept him at ground level.

"Tong, what happened?" Cheng Pu asked, his forehead a forest of baffled lines. "Are you all right?"

And for a reason Ling Tong could not explain, Cheng Pu's gentle question was the first thing all morning that had made him want to cry. He felt the prickle at the back of his eyes and the instant lump in his throat, already the size of a goose egg, and the drama student tipped his head down to hide his expression, though his confectionary disguise did most of that for him.

"I'm fine."

But the answer hovered somewhere between a croak and a whisper, and just hearing it made Ling Tong want to cry more. He wasn't going to. He couldn't. If he cried here, in front of all of these people, he'd be mocked even more than was already inevitable…

There was a shuffle of movement in front of him; Ling Tong couldn't see who had stepped forward, as his eyes remained downcast. But Han Dang's angry voiced settled it for him a moment later, as did the heavy footsteps coming toward him up the stairs.

"Who did this, Ling Tong?"

Ling Tong glared at the ground through his watering eyes, so filled with tears now that everything was a brown, splotchy blur. Who did it? Couldn't Han Dang see the culprit right behind him, at the head of the party as usual? Couldn't he see the goons lined up like bodyguards behind their dictator?

"I asked who, Ling Tong."

Han Dang's voice was much closer now. The drama student found out how much closer when two hands grabbed his upper arms and shook him. Ling Tong's eyes widened at the motion, and he had a sudden fear that the unsteady tears would be knocked down his face, revealing his weakness to the entire camp—but then there was a tug in the opposite direction, and Han Dang's hands came free, and Ling Tong found himself under Gan Ning's arm again, turned sideways from the gathering so that he was out of the manager's reach.

"Hey, take it easy, already." Gan Ning's voice was still angry, though its target had changed, and his hold on the drama student was only getting tighter. "He's been through enough this mornin'. What you got ta shake 'im for?"

It had to be a miracle, or some bizarre joke. That was twice in one day that Gan Ning had taken his side—no, it was more than taking his side. The stupid, ragtag cowboy he'd been fighting with for the last week was outright protecting him, and from his fellow cohorts no less. It was the last thing Ling Tong had ever expected: that of all the counselors, Gan Ning would be the first to really reach out to him.

As he was reaching out now, both hands settling onto the drama student's sticky shoulders. Ling Tong couldn't see the other boy's face very well, because the tears were still impairing his vision, but he could tell that Gan Ning wasn't laughing, and it was enough to make him shudder.

"What can I do, girly?"

Gan Ning was shaking him now, too, but it was a different kind of shake—like he just wanted the drama student to look up and meet his eyes. Ling Tong wasn't going to do it. If he looked up, Gan Ning would see how close he was to crying, and at this point he had no idea how the cowboy would react to that…

"D'ya want 'em all to leave? Should we go back inside? Wha'dya want ta do?"

What he wanted was to be alone—somewhere quiet, where he could cry without worrying about who was watching him. Where he didn't have to hear those voices anymore, especially the gentle ones, because they only made it worse. And where he didn't have to think about how weird Gan Ning was acting, or why, or what it meant.

There was a place like that, down by the lake. But first he'd have to get away from all these people, and through the gawking crowd, their silence pressing down on him like suffocating fog…

Ling Tong pulled away from Gan Ning's hold, blurry vision leading him toward the steps, but he'd only gone a foot before Han Dang stopped him again, one hand tight in the drama student's sleeve. The manager was out for blood—that much Ling Tong could feel through his grip alone—and his voice was yet sharper when he spoke, drilling into Ling Tong's ears like a swarm of angry hornets.

"Hold it. I asked you a question, Ling Tong, and I haven't gotten an answer yet. Who is responsible for all of this?"

It was so easy in his mind. The answer was right in front of them anyway, one colorful blur among the lot. _Sun Ce. Sun Ce's responsible for it—he's responsible for everything_. But for some reason, Ling Tong couldn't make his mouth form the words.

Maybe it was because he was tired, or because he ached all over from his struggle with the camp's "tradition" that morning. Maybe the thin oxygen at Camp Wu's altitude was just going to his head. Or maybe it was because everything about his situation seemed out of place, like someone had kicked the world and reality had slid a couple degrees to the left—Gan Ning being less of a jerk, Sun Ce's confused expression, Han Dang's eagerness to punish the culprit only making the drama student feel sick to his stomach. In spite of all his frustration and the hatred he'd been brewing for Camp Wu's counselors since the start, Ling Tong just didn't have an accusation in him.

No doubt he'd regret missing this golden opportunity for revenge later.

"No one's responsible," Ling Tong answered at last, and the air around him seemed to grow tighter, as though everyone had taken a deep breath at the same time. The drama student could barely see the ground in front of him, but he pushed on down the steps, his voice cracking beneath every muted word. "It was just a mistake, Han Dang. Nobody's at fault."

For a moment, silence was his only reply, and Ling Tong moved along the front of the gathering as steadily as he could, trusting his feet as he headed blindly for the lake. Then everyone began to talk at once, and it was all the drama student could do to catch fragments of the words being hurled at him.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Han Dang's growl. "I want an explanation, Ling Tong, and don't think you'll be getting anyone out of trouble by—"

"It wasn't a mistake—it was a tradition!" Sun Ce's proud yell. "And I'm not hiding anything, so—"

"Whoa, girly, where you goin'? Hang on—"

Whether it was the last voice in particular or all the voices combined that snapped the last of his patience, Ling Tong didn't know. But suddenly he found that he couldn't stand the weight of the encounter anymore, and he took off at a run, leaving the mayhem of the chattering camp behind him.

Trees rose up in front of him in the form of great brown shadows and disappeared to either side as the drama student charged through the sparse forest, dodging what few obstacles his vision revealed to him and tripping over the rest. The tears were coming down his face now, and he could feel the whipped cream melting beneath them, leaving open patches of skin for the air to brush across as the woods fell away and the broad expanse of the lake sparkled in the near distance.

Why him? Why did it always have to be him? Why was it that nothing could go right for him this summer, even on the small scale? And why was everyone so determined to break him down?

Ling Tong plunged toward the shoreline, aiming for the shallows and the muddy bank. But he misjudged the distance, and the next thing the drama student knew he was falling into knee-high water, his footing disintegrating in the loose sand. His hands came down to break his fall, and Ling Tong winced as they scraped against the sharp pebbles, but a moment later the light wound was forgotten, as his elbows buckled and plunged his face into the water.

For an instant, everything was murky and sightless, and the silted water stung his eyes—then Ling Tong pushed himself up and a gasp tore from his throat, rivulets of pond scum dragging the last traces of whipped cream from his face. A few drops made it into his startled mouth, and they tasted like sand and dead fish, but Ling Tong felt so disgusting already that he couldn't bring himself to care, and he only pressed his palms against his chest, squeezing his eyes closed as though that could stop the tears that were overtaking him again.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Everything had been so hard already—why did every day have to make it harder?

"Girly!"

Ling Tong's eyes shot open as the shout echoed across the lake, and at the same moment the splashes began behind him, running feet that slowed down only as the shoreline mud sucked them in. The drama student struggled to stand, fighting for balance on the soggy lake bed—but he'd never get upright before Gan Ning reached him, and he couldn't let himself seem vulnerable in front of the cowboy, after everything that had happened that morning.

"Hey, girly, you all right? Hey—"

A hand on his shoulder. Ling Tong turned and shoved as hard as he could against Gan Ning's chest, and the other boy tumbled away from him, yelping as a tremendous splash landed him fully in the water.

"Whoa!"

Gan Ning's hands had stopped his fall partway, but he made no move to get up—only sat in the water with his knees crooked in front of him, gaping to match the fish that couldn't be far off. One soggy piece of hair had flopped down in his face, dangling like seaweed between shocked brown eyes.

Any other day, the dripping cowboy's expression would have made Ling Tong laugh. Now he only turned away, unwilling to look at the victim of his sudden assault. And his hands were shaking, too. Why? It was their fault he'd pushed Gan Ning, anyway—what right did they have to wish he hadn't now?

"Ah, sheesh, girly…"

There was an undercurrent to his rival's voice that Ling Tong didn't recognize, and it was enough to bring his gaze back to Gan Ning's. The cowboy was watching him, one hand shifting through his damp hair, and the look in his eyes pushed a lump the size of a tennis ball into Ling Tong's throat. The drama student crossed his arms, watching as the water gradually stopped rippling around them.

"I'm sorry."

Gan Ning started, upsetting the lake's surface again.

"What's that?"

"I said I'm sorry," Ling Tong repeated, his tone far shorter this time. "That wasn't meant for you, okay? I was just… frustrated."

And getting more frustrated all the time. Gan Ning _would_ be the type to mock someone for an apology…

"Wow, girly. That's the firs' time I've heard yeh apologize an' mean it."

Ling Tong blinked, his eyes trailing up from the water to find Gan Ning's cheerful smile. It wasn't the mean smile, either—it was the one he'd been wearing for a while the night before, the one that wasn't so bad somehow…

With renewed vigor, the cowboy pushed himself to his feet, and one arm wrapped around Ling Tong's shoulders, pulling him close enough for the boy's free hand to ruffle his hair. "C'mon, girly," Gan Ning laughed, leading him toward the shore. "Let's ge'tcha a shower, an' then I've got an idea I think yeh might be interest'd in."

"What are you talking about?" Ling Tong asked, brushing the cowboy's arm away from him. Gan Ning's smile widened.

"Payback. And I've got jus' the thing…"

.x.

The space amid the prickling branches of the ponderosa was not nearly as big as Gan Ning had led him to believe—and definitely not big enough for the both of them, since he could feel the cowboy's breath on the back of his neck. But Ling Tong was putting up with that and the needles as well as he could, because this was the best tree in the area from which to watch the porch of Sun Ce's cabin, and there was no way he was missing this. Not after everything he'd suffered that morning.

The clearing below them was deserted. The children of cabins A and B were busy making a mess of arts and crafts time in the lunch hall, and if Xiao Qiao's wink had meant anything, Ling Tong was sure they'd stay there until long after his revenge was carried out to perfection—just as well, in the drama student's mind. The last thing he needed was some mindless kid toddling back and getting in the middle of things before Camp Wu's dictator returned from his walk. Which should be any minute now, if Sun Ce hadn't misplaced his watch along with his brain all those years ago…

"Hey. Look who it is."

Gan Ning's whisper tickled his ear, and Ling Tong swatted him, glaring at the boy. "Shh. You want them to hear you?" Gan Ning raised his hands in surrender, and the drama student rolled his eyes, turning back to peer through the evergreen branches at the two figures slowly approaching their hiding place.

Sun Ce didn't suspect a thing, of course. How could he, when that dopey grin on his face was a lifetime's worth of proof just how little was going on behind his eyes? The only thing that worried Ling Tong was the shadowy figure beside his target. Zhou Yu wasn't quite as stupid as his companion—what if he noticed something?

They had reached the edge of the porch. The first step. The second. Ling Tong felt his muscles tightening as he held his breath, and as though in response to the small sound Zhou Yu suddenly stopped, glancing at the clearing behind them as if searching for movement. Ling Tong bit his tongue, willing himself not to breath. Damn Zhou Yu's good senses! Did he have demons working for him or something?

Finding nothing out of place, the dark youth turned back toward the cabin—and then his back went rigid, and even from their perch high in the tree Ling Tong could tell how wide his eyes had become. Zhou Yu opened his mouth with a warning, but his companion was already reaching for the door of the cabin, oblivious to the three hearts beating faster behind him.

"Sun Ce, don't—"

Sun Ce yanked the screen open. There was a crash, and a yelp, and the clatter of plastic on wood—and there stood Sun Ce, covered in eight gallons of chocolate syrup, his jaw practically on the floor, staring at Zhou Yu as though his companion could explain what had just happened.

Gan Ning snorted. Ling Tong forced the laugh back down his throat. And Zhou Yu raised a hand to his mouth, lines of disbelief filling his forehead.

"Sun Ce, you moron…"

Sun Ce looked at his ruined clothing, and at the sticky puddle forming beneath him, at the integral bucket rolling back and forth at his feet. Then a cackling laugh escaped the sunlight boy, and he raised both hands to his mouth for a megaphone, grinning no less brightly for the syrup that had swallowed his skin.

"Nice one, Queenie! But don't you dare think it ends here! I'm gonna get you for that, I swear it! You hear me?"

Ling Tong heard him. But he couldn't answer, even if he'd wanted to, because the laughter had gotten out of control and now it was all he could do to breathe, leaning back against the trunk for a little extra support. He could hear Gan Ning chuckling beside him, and in a moment a hand accompanied the sound, resting on his shoulder with a kind of heavy warmth.

"See, girly? Told yeh it'd be nothin' ta get back at T-rex. He ain't careful 'bout where he walks."

"Don't call me that," Ling Tong replied, brushing the other boy's hand away. But even the drama student could tell that his response wasn't as harsh as he'd intended, and it didn't help that he was smiling—against his wishes, against his inclinations, against all the training his acting had given him. Smiling at Gan Ning, and Gan Ning was smiling back.

So miracles did happen, after all.

End Chapter 12


	13. Chapter 13

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

A/N: This chapter is probably not long enough to justify how long it took to write. My apologies; as previously warned, however, life has been busy. As for this chapter… I was reminded again just how childish Ling Tong and Gan Ning are.

And it's a little odd, but I was re-reading part of _Secession_ the other day and feeling a little sorry about the role Han Dang is playing in this story, since he was such a great guy before. Nothing to be done about it, I guess… maybe I'll try to throw him a bone at the end. Since no one really cares what happens to Han Dang, though, let's just get on with the chapter. Not sure when I'll be updating again, so enjoy it.

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There was something about the lake water that looked particularly uninviting to Ling Tong today.

Perhaps it had to do with the strong sunlight on the water. Not that the sun had been anything short of blinding ever since the drama student arrived at Camp Wu, but there was not a cloud to be seen this particular afternoon, and the sky itself seemed a little bleached, as though it had been hung out too long behind the overachieving center of the solar system.

It was a little unnerving to Ling Tong that light powerful enough to drain the visible spectrum wasn't penetrating the thick brown lake water at all, leaving its depths completely obscure. The creaky dock he was standing on didn't give the water a much better impression, either—it was ringed with moss and what would have been seaweed in a different climate, and looked to the drama student like the perfect place for a water snake to lurk. Not that said snake couldn't have bitten him right through the gaps in the warped, unsteady boards of the dock anyway…

But the visual impression the lake was making might not even have been the reason for his reluctance. It could have been any number of things. The possibility of stepping on a sharp rock; the dubious information he'd been given on the kinds of creatures that lived in the water. The fifty odd children screaming and splashing just outside the shallows. The fact that, truth be told, he'd never been much of a swimmer.

Or it could have been Gan Ning, standing just at the end of the dock and grinning up at him like a manic jack 'o lantern.

"C'mon, girly," the cowboy beckoned, patting the surface of the lake as though it were a solid object. "A little water ain't gonna hurt'cha."

Ling Tong huffed, crossing his arms over his towel vest. "You don't know that. It could be filled with toxic waste, or fish carcasses, or all the garbage this camp has generated in the last four years."

Or just a really annoying young man who styled his hair in the manner of a broom, who was laughing at him again.

"I swam in here all las' summer, and nothin' bad ever happen'd ta me," Gan Ning answered, flicking a few drops at the irate drama student. Ling Tong rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah, because you're the ideal specimen of a healthy teenage male… Wouldn't surprise me if the chemicals got into your brain and nobody noticed."

Gan Ning raised an eyebrow, leaning his arms up onto the edge of the dock. "That an insult, girly?"

"No, just a fact," Ling Tong snapped, turning back to face the shore and hoping that his pointed refusal to meet the cowboy's eyes would do something to shut him up.

It had been four days since the incident of Sun Ce's hazing ritual. Four days. And for some reason that Ling Tong couldn't fathom, Gan Ning was still smiling at him. Smiling at him like he didn't want to argue anymore—like he was done with the jabs and the petty squabbling and everything that their relationship had been made of in the last two weeks. Like he wanted to be friends.

Ling Tong had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

What he did know was that he wasn't done hating Gan Ning, whatever the other boy thought about it. Whether or not the stupid cowboy had shined up like a knight in armor a few days before, the drama student still hated him—his attitude, and his accent, and his god-awful hairdo. And that was why he had taken to being so acidic ever since the molasses incident; Gan Ning had to get the message somehow, and it definitely wasn't going to be through sweet talking.

Apparently, it wasn't going to be through insults, either.

Ling Tong heard a sigh behind him, and then the dock creaked with the weight of another person, betraying Gan Ning's exit from the water. Ling Tong didn't turn around, even as the steps got nearer and nearer to his back and the cowboy's chuckle broke the silence between them.

"Sheesh, girly… I didn' want it ta go down this way. But yer not leavin' me much of a choice."

Ling Tong frowned toward the shore. "What the hell are you talking abou—ah!"

The stunted scream was the last sound to leave his lips as Ling Tong found himself grabbed from behind, and in the next moment he was hurtling through the air—not entirely freely, because Gan Ning still had him around the waist. They hit the water together, and the drama student came up spluttering, kicking panicked legs as fast as he could in search of the bottom.

"Gan Ning!" Ling Tong shouted, shoving the sopping bangs out of his face. "What do you think you're doing? I said I wasn't coming in!"

Gan Ning was laughing at him again, laughing so hard he was practically snorting water, and even the hands Ling Tong raised to rain blows across the cowboy's head did nothing to stop him. They did nothing to detach the boy's arms from around his back, either—a fact that was quickly becoming Ling Tong's chief concern.

Why was Gan Ning holding onto him? Had he forgotten the whole I-hate-you-down-to-the-marrow-of-your-bones relationship they'd been working so hard to build? Because if so, he was going to have to be reminded, and through more forceful measures than the drama student had been trying all week.

"Let go of me!" Ling Tong spit out a mouthful of fish-infused water, putting his ungrounded feet to good use as he nailed Gan Ning in the shin. "I hate you! How could you do that?"

All the splashing and shouting had drawn the attention of the uncountable children swimming around them, and of a good number of counselors, too, most of whom were now peering in their direction. The open curiosity on their faces made Ling Tong's cheeks feel warm, and he intensified his assault on Gan Ning's head in pursuit of his stolen freedom. But either the cowboy's skull had been getting thicker in the past few days or he was just having too good a time to worry about the brain cells he was losing, because Gan Ning barely winced, grinning through his dripping smile.

"Ah, come on, girly. It ain't summer if ya don' go swimming. I was jus' givin' you a hand."

"A hand you could get off of me now," the drama student insisted. "Or better yet, have kept to yourself in the first place! Would you let go of me already?"

Gan Ning gave a little chuckle, the sound slithering like a caterpillar down Ling Tong's spine. "Well, I could. But yeh can't stand here, an' yeh never know what's in th' water…"

"Very funny," Ling Tong snapped. "There's nothing in the water except your big, stupid head. So stop tickling my feet, and…" Then the drama student stopped, and he stared into the hazel-brown eyes across from his with a gaze that was slowly growing wider.

Ling Tong swallowed hard, feeling his breath die in his throat. Something was definitely tickling his foot, flickering back and forth along his arch. And the water was too deep here for it to have been a water plant—not to mention that, from what Ling Tong had seen, gravel was the only thing growing on the bottom of Camp Wu's scummy lake.

Which meant it had to be Gan Ning. But come to think of it, what could Gan Ning be tickling his foot _with_? Right hand? Around his back. Left hand? Pressed to his shoulder. Which… meant…

Ling Tong's train of thought was abruptly interrupted when whatever was nosing around his foot stopped nudging and took a good, solid nibble.

"Ah!"

The echoing shriek got the attention of what few counselors and campers hadn't already been staring, and all heads turned to Ling Tong as the drama student's flailing upgraded to full-out writhing, the motion too much for his cabin partner to handle with his unsteady footing.

"Whoa! Hey, what's the matter—"

Gan Ning barely got the words out before he tumbled backward into the water, taking Ling Tong with him into the depths of sunless brown, and the drama student gasped as silt and who knew how many disintegrated fish carcasses flooded his unprepared mouth. With a final heave, he managed to disentangle himself from Gan Ning's arms, and he threw himself forward in the water, heading blindly for where the shore ought to be.

He had to get away. The filth of the lake and years of decomposing camp trash had created some kind of monster that lurked the bottom of the lake, and the thing could be right at his heels—

Something incredibly strong took hold of Ling Tong's arm and yanked, and panic flooded his veins, his heart pounding like a timpani drum in his ears as he was dragged up and into the air. The water exploded in front of his stinging eyes, bleached almost clear in the overwhelming sunlight—and without waiting to regain his bearings, Ling Tong turned and swung at his attacker, nailing whatever had a hold of him with an resounding whack.

"Get off me!" the drama student shouted, stumbling back a few feet in his adrenaline rush. Then his vision seemed to clear, and he found himself staring into the dark, startled eyes of one of Camp Wu's great bears—a great bear with a suspicious red mark on his cheek.

Ling Tong gaped, his mouth hanging open and his hands frozen in their defensive position. Lu Meng gaped right back, though if the wrinkles covering his forehead were any indication he was less surprised and considerably angrier than his smaller counterpart. Then a soaring laugh broke out from the end of the dock, and Ling Tong turned to see Sun Ce clutching his stomach, leaning against the rotting pier to keep himself from toppling over.

"Oh, man." The boy choked on his snicker, snorting a mouthful of water as exultant amber eyes rose to meet Ling Tong's. "You are the best thing that's ever happened to me, Queenie…"

The drama student didn't know what that meant, but he knew Sun Ce well enough to know that it wasn't a good thing. "What are you talking about?" he demanded, his shoulders stiffening instinctually. "Why are you laughing? You, too," he added, shooting a glare at Gan Ning, who had begun to crack up himself. "What the hell is so funny?"

"Aw, girly," the cowboy managed, wiping lines of lake water from his grinning face. "Even I wasn' expectin' yeh ta scream…"

"W… what?" Either the sun had suddenly gotten stronger, or else he was blushing, because Ling Tong's cheeks were decidedly warmer now than they had been a minute ago. "I – I didn't scream," the drama student argued, and he crossed his arms over his absolutely sopping t-shirt, hoping he looked imposing and not merely defensive. "I just – something bit me, and—"

"Yeh don' mean _this_, do ya?" Gan Ning asked, dropping a friendly hand onto Sun Ce's head. The sunshine boy grinned, clicking his fingers together like a pair of lobster claws.

"Lake monster courtesy of yours truly," he announced, his voice dipping into a singsong.

Ling Tong stared at them, his wide gaze shifting from Sun Ce's gleeful smile to the cowboy's, and then back again, his face growing redder with every pass. Then the two shared a crisp high five, and the drama student's features pinched tight with anger, his jaw snapping shut with a force strong enough to rattle his teeth. Suddenly the water didn't feel quite so cold anymore—Ling Tong wondered if there was steam coming out of his ears yet, or if it was all building up in his throat, preparing to hurtle his voice into the glowing sunshine.

That Gan Ning… the drama student should have known his nice-guy act wouldn't last. And whatever beef he'd had with Sun Ce for the last few days was definitely gone, too, if the matching mischievous grins they directed his way were any indication. Obviously, the embargo on picking on him was off, too—which just meant Ling Tong was going to have to go back to the battle he'd been fighting against Camp Wu's delinquents for weeks. Which was fine, because that was what he'd wanted.

Wasn't it?

"Ugh! I hate you both!"

The drama student's shout tore across the water and echoed in the trees that surrounded the lake, their ample boughs tossing his words back toward the swimmers. Ling Tong rounded on his cabin partner, ponytail dashing back and forth with his rage.

"That's why you wanted me to come into the water so bad – so you could play one of your stupid little games! And now I'm all wet, and the two of you are just going to stand there and laugh… I hope you laugh until your tongues fall off, and you're welcome to choke on them for all I care!"

Sun Ce was sniggering far too hard to respond, though Gan Ning managed a low whistle at the string of pseudo-expletives, his hazel eyes still far too playful to be taking the drama student seriously. With what little of his dignity the prank had left intact, Ling Tong turned on heel and stomped toward the shoreline, keeping his chin high to hold back the waves of embarrassment curdling in his stomach.

How could they? Sun Ce had said his absurd hazing ritual made the drama student one of the team for good, and Gan Ning had come running to his rescue without a second thought—how had they reverted to their childish bullying in such a short amount of time? Was this really how these delinquents treated people they considered friends? Then again, from what Ling Tong had seen of how they treated each other…

"Hey, girly, come back! We didn' mean any harm."

Gan Ning's shout was still lined with laughter, and Ling Tong felt his ears turning red, darkening the expression he was carefully keeping just shy of a pout. No harm—sure. Just the decimation of the last remnants of his image. And they'd done it in front of all these people, too—all the counselors and campers, watching him with curious and wary glances as he headed toward the shore. Ling Tong couldn't speak for his insufferable rival, but Sun Ce definitely had a thing for public ridicule—

"Aren't you even gonna apologize to Lu Meng?" the camp's little dictator shouted, and even without looking at him the drama student could just _see_ the amusement gloating in those glowing eyes of his. "He was just trying to keep you out of the deep water, y'know."

This last almost made Ling Tong pause, but then he pressed on, his determined feet splashing harder now as he reached the ankle-deep water. He hadn't meant to hit Lu Meng, but he couldn't really be held responsible for that, after the trick Sun Ce had pulled. And besides, he distinctly remembered Lu Meng armed with a sticky confection of some sort after his hazing experience four days ago. No doubt the great oaf deserved to be hit for something.

"Next time, I'll just let you drown," came Lu Meng's sullen mutter, just loud enough to skirt the surface of the lake and reach the drama student's ears. Ling Tong scoffed, turning back at last as he stepped onto the shore and shook his sopping sleeves.

"Oh, really? What would your grandmother say about that?" he snipped, his eyes skimming the soiled water to catch Lu Meng's gaze. The older teen's face had frozen in shock, but his was the only one; nearly everyone else in the lake gave in to some sort of smile, and Sun Ce hooted, slapping the surface of the lake with one delighted hand.

"Good one, Queenie!" he shouted, shooting Ling Tong a thumbs-up sign. The drama student sniffed and continued his trek up the shore, feeling only a little better for the barb that had so successfully hit its mark.

There was a line of pool chairs resting just where the shore flattened out again, and Ling Tong made for that, noticing as he did that three of the four seats were already occupied. Shang Xiang waved over her head at the approaching drama student, a smile lighting her pleasing features, and from her side Taishi Ci sent him a smirk, but the figure at the far end of the row remained unmoved, regarding the drama student with eyes that were clearly unimpressed by his behavior. Ling Tong scowled, turning away from Zhou Yu's cold stare to take the seat beside Shang Xiang.

One more counselor he couldn't understand. If the dark teen was going to bother being Sun Ce's shadow, couldn't he even do his part to keep the egomaniac of a dictator out of trouble? Zhou Yu looked like he didn't even care about the trouble his companion was getting up to in the lake, unless that glower on his face was for all the noise they'd been making.

The next time his uncle put together a counselor roster, Ling Tong hoped he would include a few more personality disorders than troublemaking and stone-cold. The camp's diversity factor was abysmal.

"Hey, Queenie—have a seat," Shang Xiang invited, pushing a pair of pretty sunglasses up onto her auburn crown. As the drama student relaxed back into the well-worn plastic chair, the girl reached over to pinch his arm, her smile friendly despite the teasing touch. "Guess they got you, huh?" Ling Tong huffed under his breath, and his companion laughed, patting his shoulder with her now gentle hand. "Don't worry about it. He gets everybody. The first year I was here, he put this rubber snake in my shoe—one with a fake rattle and everything. I screamed bloody murder when I stepped on it."

Ling Tong blinked a little, struggling to reconcile the image of the strong-willed young woman before him with one shrieking about a rubber snake. From his position to her right, Taishi Ci scoffed, two granite arms settling over his chest.

"Sure. You screamed. Then you beat him with it for fifteen minutes."

Beneath the harsh sarcasm that had conquered his words, Taishi Ci almost sounded amused—Ling Tong couldn't be sure, but Shang Xiang must have been, because she laughed again, flipping a strand of auburn hair away from her neck. "Just teaching him a lesson," she replied, her tone a little too sweet for the words it delivered. "Wouldn't want T-rex to get the wrong idea about picking on girls."

Taishi Ci smirked. "You mean, that they won't fight back?"

Shang Xiang smiled at him. "You nailed it." Then she turned back to Ling Tong, the sun lending her eyes a distinctly encouraging sheen. "If you want him to stop picking on you so bad, just fight back once in a while. He likes getting a rise out of people. If you weren't so easy to push, he'd probably be easier to put up with."

The drama student felt himself coloring again, and he turned back to face the lake, glaring daggers at the counselors who had begun an energetic game of Marco Polo. "Why should I have to put up with him at all?" Ling Tong grumbled, reaching behind him to wring some of the pond water from his dripping ponytail. "You'd think somebody would've put a stop to all his bullying by now, but you all just let him run around like he owns the place—"

"How long is it going to take you to stop whining?"

The low, sharp voice froze Ling Tong's hands in his hair, and he glanced down the line of chairs to return the speaker's gaze, startled again by how cold Zhou Yu's eyes were in his handsome face. Shang Xiang and Taishi Ci had gone silent, the former leaning back tighter in her chair as the latter turned his face to the sky—but Sun Ce's second-in-command was staring straight at him, his question bittering the air between them.

Ling Tong swallowed hard, more caught off guard than he'd have liked to admit by the interruption. "What… what do you mean?" he asked after a moment, and Zhou Yu shook his head, his form otherwise still as marble against the sagging chair.

"You've been here for two weeks, and you're still prattling on like you expect someone to jump at your every whim. I am asking how long I will have to put up with that."

The drama student gaped at him for a moment, his heartbeat skipping a little faster in his chest. It was probably the first time there'd been no one between himself and Zhou Yu's icy tone, and Ling Tong was finding the older youth a lot more unnerving than he'd originally given him credit for… With a sputter, he forced his voice out again, holding onto his indignant tone as though it were a shield.

"I don't expect anybody to jump. I'm just making an observation. Is that a crime?" The other boy shot him a flat look, and Ling Tong bristled, feeling the sparks of righteous anger flaring in his stomach. With a sharp exhale, he pushed himself out of the chair, flipping his bangs away from his eyes with a dismissive hand. "You know what? You don't have to put up with it at all. I'll just take myself elsewhere. Thanks all the same for the offer—"

"Sit down."

Ling Tong froze, not yet turned fully toward the cabins, and glanced back over his shoulder, tensing again when he found those eyes staring straight at him. Zhou Yu jerked his chin toward the drama student's abandoned chair, rising effortlessly to his feet and closing the distance between them with even strides.

"Sit down. I have a few things to say to you."

Ling Tong intended to stand his ground. Sure, the delinquent stepping toward him now was part of a street gang, and the expression on his face reminded the drama student distinctly of how murderers always looked in the movies, right before they chopped somebody's head off with an axe—but he was done being pushed around by Sun Ce's posse, and he only squared his shoulders, giving Zhou Yu as defiant a look as he could manage. Shang Xiang had said to stand up to them, and he was never one who believed in putting things off; so if fighting back was the way to get fair treatment around here, he was going to start right here, right now—

Then the pale boy reached out and pushed against his shoulder, and Ling Tong tumbled back into his chair—not from the force of the blow, which had barely touched him, but from the fear of what that hand might do when it reached its destination. If Zhou Yu was surprised at all by his pithy resistance, it didn't show; the older teen merely crossed both arms over his t-shirt and leaned back on his heels, frowning despite the sunlight.

"I am not going to repeat myself, so listen carefully." Zhou Yu leaned down to press one hand into the arm of Ling Tong's chair, and the drama student felt himself shrinking back, trying to keep the distance between them stable. "This is not your high school. This is not your world of adoring fans and fairy tales. We are not here to clap when you take your final bow." Zhou Yu stared him down, his heavy gaze growing more stifling by the second. "Your rules don't apply here. Stop expecting them to."

Now Ling Tong knew he shouldn't have sat down. Zhou Yu was a little taller than him anyway, but with the height advantage of standing, the older teen's eyes were inescapable, like two impending boulders preparing to crush him from above. It was all the drama student could do to find a retort, and his voice was shakier than he'd have liked, tripping all over his tongue on its way out.

"I didn't say they would! I just want Sun Ce to leave me alone. Is that so much to ask?" He glanced over at Shang Xiang and Taishi Ci for support, but both of them had closed up like clams, staring out at the lake as though they were deaf to the conversation right beside them. Ling Tong bit his lip, sending Zhou Yu as sharp a scowl as he could manage. "Why is it that, out of everybody up here, only you two get to act like you were still—"

"On the streets?"

The interruption stopped him, cutting through his words like savage frost, and Ling Tong held his tongue, wondering if he'd gone too far and Zhou Yu really was going to snap his neck. But Sun Ce's shadow only straightened back to his full height and threw the drama student a smile—not a very nice smile, though. Not a smile Ling Tong really wanted to receive a second time.

"Don't ever make that mistake. Being here is nothing like being on the streets."

For a long moment—long enough that Ling Tong felt a line of sweat begin to trickle down his neck—Zhou Yu said nothing else, only staring at him with pitiless eyes until the drama student was sure his face must have gone raw from that scouring gaze alone. Then the dark-haired young man put a hand to his chin, considering the boy before him.

"Why are you here?"

That, Ling Tong could respond to. The inquiry jumpstarted his indignance again, sending a flash of anger across his narrowed eyes. "It's not like I wanted to be—"

"So I've heard. That's not what I asked. Answer the question."

Once again, the drama student found his tongue useless, startled out of its words by the sheer bluntness of the other boy's tone. It was becoming clearer and clearer to him that Sun Ce wasn't the only one without any manners—Zhou Yu just did a better job of concealing it than his loudmouthed companion. A wave of heat that could only have been a flush seared across his face, and Ling Tong slumped back into the chair, his voice no more than a reluctant mutter.

"My parents were going out of town for the summer."

"And?" Zhou Yu prompted, one thin eyebrow arching into his forehead. Ling Tong ground his teeth together, wishing he dared to look away.

"And they were worried about leaving me home alone, all right? Three months is a long time."

Why he was defending a decision he'd hated from day one, Ling Tong didn't know. He did know that Zhou Yu's expression had grown, if possible, even more condescending, and it only got darker as he leaned forward again, this time bracing both hands against the tired white armrests of the worn-down chair.

"And how long, do you think, Sun Ce and I could be missing before someone so much as noticed?"

Ling Tong knew the answer to that. The answer was that no one would—no one worth mentioning, anyway. But the last thing he wanted right now was to give Zhou Yu the satisfaction of backing him into a corner, any more than he already had; so the drama student held his ground, doing his best not to pull in on himself.

"If you hate living that way so much, why don't you change?"

It was a question he'd been wanting to ask almost since he'd arrived at Camp Wu, at least since he'd heard all of the delinquents' stories and started to distinguish them from one another. Zhou Yu was not the person he most wanted to ask—the Qiao sisters, maybe, or even someone like Taishi Ci, because there was something about Zhou Yu that made the drama student sure he'd be at home nowhere but at Sun Ce's side, and Sun Ce definitely belonged outside the lines of society. But Zhou Yu was the person who'd pushed him, and the drama student was determined to have _his_ answer, at least. So Ling Tong held his breath and returned his adversary's unwavering stare, gripping the arms of his chair just a little too tight.

Zhou Yu was quiet for a moment, and then he shook his head, his lips yielding to a smirk that was only a little less intimidating than the smile he'd worn earlier. "I said it was different, Ling Tong. I never said I hated it."

Ling Tong was so shocked to hear his name on the other boy's tongue that he almost choked, but Zhou Yu pressed on, ignoring his stuttering features. As he spoke, the dark-haired teen released the chair and took a step back, giving the drama student room to breathe once again.

"Everything in life comes at a price. How you live is no exception to that. If Sun Ce and I were to go missing, no one would look for us. But in exchange, we have absolute freedom. That is something you will never have."

Ling Tong felt his heckles rising again, and he leaned forward in his chair, determined to be heard this time. But Zhou Yu had anticipated that, it seemed, and he pushed the drama student back with the heel of one hand, that cold stare freezing the drama student in place before a single syllable could cross his lips.

"Camp Wu lies somewhere between the worlds we come from. And whether you acknowledge it or not, Sun Ce is already meeting you in the middle." Ling Tong's eyes widened at the assertion, and Zhou Yu watched him closely, pale arms coming to rest across his chest again. "What he chooses to do from the middle is not my problem. Neither are you. But if I have to hear you whine one more time about the unfair treatment you're receiving up here, it will be the last complaint you ever make."

As though to emphasize his words that much more, Zhou Yu bent down to regard Ling Tong from a scant few inches away, his features still as granite beneath the wavering shade of the trees.

"Are we clear?"

Ling Tong wasn't sure whether that was a death threat or just a warning of immense discomfort. But either way, he was definitely going to his uncle this time. If he lived that long.

"Hey, Zhou Yu!"

The high shout soared over them like a breaking wave, and the dark-haired teen turned back toward the water, a silent answer to his companion's shout. Around the taller boy's body, Ling Tong could see that Sun Ce and Gan Ning had both pulled themselves onto the dock, and they appeared to be watching the interaction between their respective cabin mates with a great deal of interest. Sun Ce, for his part, just looked curious, but even at this distance Ling Tong could see that the cowboy's face had taken on a darker sheen, as though uncertain anger were riding just beneath the surface of his expression.

Ling Tong had to roll his eyes. Sure, Gan Ning wanted to be his knight in shining armor again _now_.

"What are you two talking about?" Sun Ce hollered, his unruly ponytail sagging from the thick water of the lake.

Zhou Yu cast a glance over his shoulder at the drama student, tensing Ling Tong's muscles with that single backward look, and then the older boy turned away again, black eyes unhurried in his handsome face. "Nothing," he replied, his reply far quieter than Sun Ce's unnecessary shout.

Ling Tong swallowed a pout. Nothing—nothing but his personal well-being, thank you very much.

"Well, if it's nothing, come on down here!" Sun Ce's suggestion ricocheted off the water and echoed in Ling Tong's ears, bright as the smile on his unconcerned face. "I said I'd take some of the squirts out in the canoe—you wanna come?"

_Whether you acknowledge it or not, Sun Ce is already meeting you in the middle._ Zhou Yu's words rang through Ling Tong's mind as the invitation died away on the simple summer breeze, pulling the drama student's eyes to the boy standing hopefully at the end of the dock. When it came to his treatment of the other counselors, Ling Tong couldn't believe this was the middle at all—if this was halfway good behavior, what was Sun Ce usually like? But when it came to actually _being_ a counselor…

Zhou Yu was silent for a moment; and though his back was turned, and Ling Tong couldn't prove it, the drama student was absolutely sure his face didn't even change expression, his thoughts completely unreadable behind the mask of stone he always wore. Then without replying, the darker teen began to move, picking his way toward the dock, and Sun Ce's face took on another level of brilliance, his smile outdoing even the parching sun.

"All right! I'll get the canoe."

With no more warning than that, Sun Ce dove off of the dock and hit the deep brown water, reappearing a moment later in a hard swim toward the boat rack a short distance around the lake. His movement stopped Zhou Yu partway down the sloping shore, and twin obsidian eyes gazed after him with what looked to Ling Tong like just a tinge of annoyance, though it was barely distinguishable from his usual expression.

Prevented by the departure from his intended destination, Zhou Yu turned back and caught the drama student's eyes again, the breeze dragging a little of his hair over one shoulder. This time, he didn't say anything—but he didn't have to, because it was all in his eyes. That warning again, and a sharp edge of criticism, and the same possessive—or was it protective this time?—element that he and Sun Ce had been trading for the last two weeks. The same one that had shown up so clearly on the first day of camp, when he had forced Han Dang's hands away from Sun Ce's shirt…

_Han Dang_. The thought of the surly manager widened Ling Tong's eyes, and he found his voice at last, calling out just as the stoic youth started to turn away again.

"Zhou Yu!"

Zhou Yu paused, glaring reluctantly back over his shoulder. Ling Tong pulled himself straight so he could meet that stern gaze head-on.

"If Sun Ce's meeting us in the middle, why does Han Dang want to get rid of him so badly?"

_I don't know why I didn't just agree to get rid of you after last year._ That was what Han Dang had said. Ling Tong had wondered about it at the time, but he'd had a lot of other things to worry about—for one thing, how he was going to live with Gan Ning for the next ten minutes, let alone three whole months. But the memory of his curiosity had resurfaced now, and Zhou Yu seemed like as good a person as any to fill in the details of whatever events from the previous summer were coloring this one so strongly. And since Ling Tong was definitely not going to be seeking out the other boy's company any time in the near future, it was now or never…

In the chair beside his, Shang Xiang started a little, and Taishi Ci chewed on the inside of his cheek, thoughtful silence overtaking his gruff features. Zhou Yu turned back to regard him fully, and once more the drama student wondered whether his eyes had been plucked out and replaced with live coals early in life—that stare was far too creepy to be natural. Then the dark-haired boy chuckled, one more sound that should have been friendly but just wasn't.

"They got into a fight."

Ling Tong blinked, frowning as he inched forward in his seat. "You mean, an argument? But Sun Ce argues with the managers all the time—"

"No. A fight." Zhou Yu shook his head. "And Han Dang didn't hit back, so Sun Ce broke his jaw."

Ling Tong's mouth fell open. "He… he did what?" The other boy rolled his eyes, his patience visibly waning.

"Did I say I wasn't going to repeat myself?"

The drama student snapped his jaw shut, embarrassment and irritation doing more than the summer sun to turn his face tomato red. Anyone would have been surprised to hear something like that—why did Zhou Yu have to be so mean about it? And why had Sun Ce been allowed back at Camp Wu anyway, if he'd gotten into the habit of hitting authority figures? Shouldn't he be rotting away in Juvenile Hall somewhere?

In spite of his better judgment, Ling Tong almost spoke his thoughts aloud—and would have, if Shang Xiang had not stepped in with a real explanation. The young woman sighed and kicked her feet through the light grass, her voice just a little tighter than usual.

"It started as an argument, Queenie. They just got a little out of hand. Han Dang kinda grabbed Sun Ce around the shoulders, because he was pretty mad and he wanted to make sure he was listening, and then…" The girl shrugged, her thoughtful eyes lost in the boughs overhead. "Sun Ce took a swing at him. Huang Gai had to drive him down for surgery and everything. It was pretty scary for a while there."

Taishi Ci stretched above his head, but to Ling Tong the motion still looked stiff, as though there were a lot more tension in the young man than his voice wanted to admit. "We all thought Sun Ce was a goner. Cheng Pu got him back somehow, though."

Ling Tong wished he could be surprised to hear his uncle's name come up as the champion of delinquency, but after their last talk he had practically been expecting it. Exactly how Cheng Pu had managed to keep Camp Wu's most unruly counselor out of court or worse, on the other hand, would have been an interesting story—Taishi Ci seemed to think so, too, if his level stare at the back of Zhou Yu's head was any indication. But the dark youth remained silent, and Ling Tong raised his voice instead, eager to get the whole story this time before another mystery slipped through his fingers.

"What were they fighting about?"

It sure seemed like a simple question. Ling Tong was almost expecting someone to laugh it away. But Shang Xiang straightened in her seat, pressing back into the worn fabric as though she were seeking an escape route, and the drama student could see Taishi Ci's jaw grinding, like he had been forced to swallow something unpleasant and was hoping to wear it down to nothing before it touched his tongue. In the end, the unlikeliest of them all answered, his tone short as usual.

"Gan Ning."

Ling Tong gaped openly at Zhou Yu's back, almost unsure whether he'd heard the name of his rival or just imagined it. Then the drama student shot up out of his chair, his eyes flickering between the dark-haired boy before him and the one perched at the end of the dock, swinging his feet in the water.

Talk about a non sequitur.

"Gan Ning?" Even to his own ears, his voice sounded breathless, the surprise that had pushed him out of his chair now taking control of his tongue. "Why Gan Ning? What does he have to do with anything?"

Sun Ce arguing on anyone's behalf but his own was weird enough—but Gan Ning? They didn't even seem to be the best of friends. And for all his faults, Gan Ning had at least seemed like the kind of person who stood up for himself, rather than needing someone else to do it for him… Zhou Yu scoffed, shaking his head at the wide waters of the lake.

"Stop trying to weasel Gan Ning's story out of one of us. You'll have to get it from him, if you get it at all."

"I'm not trying to weasel anything, okay?" Ling Tong insisted, summarily offended by the reference to a sneaky mammal and hoping his glare would burn a hole through Zhou Yu's white t-shirt. "I just meant – I thought all you gang types were really pissy about fighting your own battles—"

"That is another mistake I would encourage you not to make."

For an instant, Zhou Yu's dark eyes flashed over his shoulder, and Ling Tong froze the way he'd heard small animals did when they came face to face with a snake. Once again, the drama student wondered if the last thing he ever saw would be the frown on the other boy's face—then Zhou Yu turned away, his words the only confrontation between them.

"Gan Ning isn't like us. And the longer you ignore that, the less you will understand."

Then the dark-haired boy was moving again, setting off down the shore toward the canoe Sun Ce was trying to pull out of the water, and Ling Tong was left open-mouthed beside his chair, six times as confused as he'd been before.

_Gan Ning isn't like us._

What the hell was that supposed to mean? And how was he supposed to understand anything, when Zhou Yu left him that riddle and walked off?

"Ugh!" Shang Xiang and Taishi Ci looked up at his frustrated groan, and the drama student collapsed back into his chair, arms tight with frustration as they fell across his chest. "Why can't anybody answer a question around here?"

Shang Xiang smiled, but the expression was a little dim at the corners, as though she understood too much to be completely sympathetic. "Zhou Yu's just like that. You get used to it after a while. Don't let it bother you too much."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Ling Tong shot back, his anger gaining force as his words did the same. "He's never going to tell me what he meant, and I know neither of _you_ are, either…" He paused for a moment, but the other two counselors remained quiet, confirming his suspicions. Ling Tong huffed and pushed on with his rant, flicking his nearly dry ponytail away from his neck. "What's so great about being in a gang, anyway? Always talking about it like that's something to be proud of. All it gets you is dragged into an alley and shot—"

Shang Xiang's laugh interrupted him, and the drama student turned to look at her, mildly surprised by her response. What surprised him more was that Taishi Ci seemed to be smiling, too, though it was just a shadow at the edge of his lips; Shang Xiang reached over to muss Ling Tong's already tangled hair, earning a short yelp from her startled companion.

"Oh, Queenie… I think Sun Ce gets more out of it than that," the girl chided, her tone still playful though her eyes were sincere. "You've got to admit, it sounds pretty exciting. And he gets to order a bunch of people around, too."

"And freedom," Taishi Ci added, a shrug rolling through his shoulders. "That's got to be part of it."

The two counselors shared a glance, and Ling Tong started a little at the echo of Zhou Yu's earlier words, wondering again what it was about these delinquents that gave them such a high idea of freedom. There were some perks to having rules, too… then again, maybe delinquents and freedom were like opposite sides of a magnet.

There was a heavy splash, followed by a cacophony of voices, and Ling Tong turned back to see that the canoe had pushed off at last, shaking a little as it moved into deeper water. The four boys in the middle were jostling each other back and forth, trailing their hands over the side and yelling to Sun Ce, who knelt in the bow with his trademark grin; and behind them all, Zhou Yu moved his paddle from one side of the boat to the other, so still under the dark curtain of his hair that he reminded Ling Tong just a little of a Land-O-Lakes butter advertisement.

The drama student frowned to himself and kicked a clump of dirt with one unimpressed foot, fingers raking through his disheveled hair. "And what does Zhou Yu get out of it?" he asked. "Being in a gang, I mean."

When he didn't immediately get an answer, Ling Tong looked back at his fellow counselors, his narrowed eyes requiring a response of some kind. Shang Xiang had her lips pressed tightly together, though whether in concern or to stifle a smile the drama student couldn't tell. Taishi Ci shifted in his seat, watching the canoe's arrowhead ripples with steady eyes.

"He gets Sun Ce," the boy answered at last, relaxing back into his chair.

Though he didn't understand why, Ling Tong felt color rising into his face again, settling like a sunburn over his cheeks. "What's that supposed to mean?" the drama student demanded, his voice a little higher than usual. But Taishi Ci didn't speak, and neither did Shang Xiang, and in the end he was left with one more unanswered question to turn over in his already full mind.

.x.

If there was one perk about being up at Camp Wu—which he wasn't saying there was—it would probably have been the stars. Ling Tong had seen the stars hundreds of times from home, and he'd never found them all that interesting. There wasn't much exciting about a bunch of white dots that didn't move, and though his mom had tried to point out the constellations once, the drama student had never been able find them on his own.

Up here in the middle of nowhere, though, they were a lot brighter than back in the city. And more than that, they were everywhere—there were so many in the deep blue velvet of the sky that even trying to find a constellation seemed useless. Was there one patch of sky that _wasn't_ a constellation? Or maybe it was just that the whole sky was one big constellation, when there were so many stars; Ling Tong wasn't sure what picture it made, but looking at it wasn't all bad.

Better than staring at the sleepless ceiling of his stuffy cabin, anyway.

_Gan Ning isn't like us. Sun Ce is already meeting you in the middle. I don't know why I didn't just agree to get rid of you after last year._ The drama student sighed through his teeth, slumping forward from his position at the top of the cabin stairs so he could rest both arms against his upraised knees. Part of him wished he could just go to sleep and stop thinking about everything, but the larger part knew he'd never be able to, not while he was chewing on the afternoon's events.

It just didn't make any sense. What did Gan Ning have to do with an argument between Sun Ce and Han Dang? And what did Zhou Yu mean, he wasn't like them? The irritating cowboy was definitely from the same stock as the camp's energetic dictator: loud, brash, liable to get on your nerves with a single sentence. And Gan Ning was at Camp Wu, which meant he had to have gotten into some kind of trouble. So what was the big deal, separating him out like that?

_Gan Ning isn't like us._

Mostly, the afternoon had left him with a single, nagging question. If Gan Ning wasn't like them, what was he?

"Can' sleep?"

Present, apparently.

Ling Tong wondered briefly if there was some god somewhere whose sole job was to make sure people showed up at the most inconvenient times, especially right when you were thinking about them.

With a sigh like the night wind in the trees around them, Gan Ning settled down onto the step beside Ling Tong, draping his hat easily over one knee. The drama student shuffled half-heartedly away from him, but it was barely a gesture, and the breeze brushed their sleeves together anyway, cold and sweet on the skin of their faces. Ling Tong wrinkled his nose, budging Gan Ning's foot with one of his.

"You can leave now."

Gan Ning chuckled, his face a blanket of shadow in the darkness. "Nah. Jus' thought I'd step out and see what the weather was up to, n'here you were. Look'd like yeh could use a friend."

Ling Tong unfolded to lean back on his hands, keeping his eyes on the stars. "Yeah, I could. Which means _you're_ not going to do any good, doesn't it?"

The cowboy shook his head. "I'm better'n nothin', aren't I?" Ling Tong glanced at him, but his eyes were hidden beneath pools of shadow, and it was impossible to tell whether they were serious or not.

Which wasn't his problem or anything. He didn't like Gan Ning, and Gan Ning ought to know that by now. So if the comb-incompetent cowboy got his feelings hurt chasing a friendship that wasn't there, it wasn't Ling Tong's fault. Which meant he had no reason to open up to his obnoxious rival about any of the things spinning in his head. Especially the things that had to do with that rival himself.

Which was why he definitely didn't slip back to lie across the deck and open his mouth, arms pillowed beneath his head.

"I don't get you. Any of you." Gan Ning glanced down at his blunt beginning, and the drama student frowned, wishing he had something to throw into that impassive face. "What are you, a bunch of samurai? Nobody talks about anything—you just leave all these little hints, like I'm supposed to get the whole picture from a couple puzzle pieces. What's with that?"

As he said the last, Ling Tong threw out a foot and kicked the railing, wishing a moment later that his quickly bruising toes had left the wooden barrier alone. He kept the pain off of his face as best he could, but something must have shown through, because Gan Ning smiled a little, the curve of his lips shimmering in the starlight.

"Anythin' I can help with?"

That was the real trouble, wasn't it. The only person in the camp who was willing to give him a hand—and on his life, Ling Tong didn't know why it was _him_—was Gan Ning, but everything he really wanted to know was about Gan Ning, too. And whatever Zhou Yu had said, Ling Tong definitely couldn't ask. _I swear I'll bite my own tongue off before I ever beg you for anything._ He'd said that himself, and he intended to stick to it. And even if asking wasn't begging, it was pretty damn close…

"What were yeh talkin' to Zhou Yu about?"

Ling Tong blinked at the question, looking back to the face of the boy beside him to see that it was wearing that expression again—the same one he'd had when Ling Tong glanced at him earlier that afternoon, vague with a kind of wary anger. Gan Ning was looking down at him, too, bracing his weight against one hand so his invisible eyes could meet Ling Tong's more completely—and though there was still some distance between them, it was suddenly much too close, and Ling Tong scooted away, turning his gaze to the sky in search of escape.

"Nothing."

Gan Ning snorted and shook his head, strands of unkempt hair falling to shade his eyes. "Funny. Zhou Yu doesn' talk 'bout nothin' all that often."

His posture said there was something wrong. It was just a little too relaxed, as though he were forcing himself to stay loose. Ling Tong didn't know how he knew that, and then he was annoyed with himself for noticing—but he was more annoyed with the fact that it bothered him, pushing something inside of him to pour all his questions out into the soft night air. He held the impulse back as long as he could, but in the end one slipped out anyway—the last one, and probably the least important, but one of the few that it would be safe to ask his cabin partner. The one Taishi Ci and Shang Xiang had refused to answer.

"Zhou Yu and Sun Ce. Are they… together?"

He meant to say _sleeping together_. The middle word had just refused to come. Maybe that was why the question made Gan Ning smile a little, pulling his body back to rest against his elbows as his legs stretched on down the stairs.

"Pretty much ev'ry way two people can be, I guess."

"Pretty much?" Ling Tong turned over onto his stomach and watched his rival's face for an answer, glad of the darkness that kept his warming cheeks all one color.

Gan Ning shrugged. "They ain't married."

"I knew that," the drama student snapped, turning his face away so that the end of the porch took the cowboy's place in his eyes. Behind him, Gan Ning shifted, the tiny sound reverberating through the water-worn wood.

"What d'you care?" he asked.

Ling Tong closed his eyes. "I don't, okay? I was just wondering."

"So yeh do."

"Would you shut up already?" Ling Tong flipped onto his other side, doing his best to imitate Zhou Yu's glare as he leveled a frown at the cowboy's teasing smirk. "Last time I ever ask you anything."

"Not likely," Gan Ning observed, still smirking under the cover of the shadows. Ling Tong kicked at him, but his rival dodged easily, the chuckle that was becoming so familiar filling the air around them. "That wasn' what you were talkin' 'bout, I bet."

"Oh, what do you know?"

Ling Tong rolled forward to rest against his knees again, chin pressing into the soft patches of his unripped jeans. The wind circled them before returning to the trees, and the drama student wrapped his arms tighter around his legs, trying not to wish he'd brought a coat outside with him. Then there was a warm weight on his shoulder, and Ling Tong looked back to find that Gan Ning's hand had materialized against his shirt, steady like the boy's lightless eyes.

"Yeh know, those two… I think they've seen a lot a things ya'd be better off not seein'. A lot a things you an' I couldn' really understand. Not jus' them, either… the Qiao girls, 'n maybe Sushi, a little bit. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm better off not puttin' the pieces together." The cowboy smiled, and then his hand disappeared, and Ling Tong shivered, almost missing the heat. "Yeh don' hav'ta understand everything. Sometimes bein' a friend's all anybody needs."

Then the boy stood up, and with strides as smooth as starlight he was down the steps, making his way across the space between their cabins almost before Ling Tong noticed him moving. Gan Ning only stopped when he reached the second set of stairs, and he glanced back over his shoulder with that same shadowed smile, tipping his hat in a gentleman's farewell.

"G'night, girly."

It was only then, as the door to the adjacent cabin creaked shut behind his vanishing form, that Ling Tong realized Gan Ning hadn't used his nickname once during their conversation. The wind slipped under the porch railing and into his ear, and the drama student shuddered, wondering why that one spot on his shoulder seemed so much colder than everything else. Ling Tong shut his eyes against the depths of the night, tucking his face into the fabric of his jeans.

"A friend, huh?"

Too bad he had no idea what to make of that.

xxx

_Whiny brat. Maybe that'll never change. The only thing that's really changing is me, I guess. Not wantin' to fight with you anymore. Wonderin' what tonight would have been like, if you didn't hate me so much._

_You're a spoiled little girl, y'know—wanting everything handed to you on a silver platter. Wanting a full puzzle, not a bunch of mismatched pieces. I guess I'm one of those pieces you don't know how to put together, too. I guess that's why you couldn't ask for my help figuring them out._

_I wonder what he said to you, to put that look on your face tonight. That look like you'd never seen me before, or like I'd grown an extra head and you were tryin' to guess where it came from. I'll probably never know that. There is one thing I do know, though. I know I'm starting to wish we could sit like that more often, and maybe I could keep my hand on your shoulder._

_I'm starting to wish you'd be the one to put my pieces together._

End Chapter 13


	14. Chapter 14

Pairings: Gan Ning x Ling Tong, Zhou Yu x Sun Ce, Shang Xiang x Lu Xun on the side. Shang Xiang x Lu Xun was part of Quantum's request, and I just can't help myself with Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

Warnings: None really.

Summary: AU. Camp Wu – a place for swimming, horseback riding, and juvenile delinquents. Of them all, only Ling Tong does not belong. Far worse than the bugs, the mud, and the screaming children is his co-counselor, an obnoxious boy named Gan Ning. He's the picture of trouble and Ling Tong hates him. But Gan Ning isn't as easy to understand as he seems. How much can change in the course of one summer?

A/N: Took a long time. I will try to update more regularly with the new school year. Please don't hold your breath—I don't want to be responsible for any fatalities. Enjoy.

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Ling Tong had never been much of an athlete.

It wasn't that he was in bad shape, exactly. The drama student tended to be rather proud of his slim build, actually—and why not? Void though he was of bulky musculature, he was far better suited for the quick footwork that came with stageplay than any of the burly benchpressers that strutted his high school's halls. There was nothing wrong with being light on his feet instead of trying to cram as much meat onto his bones as possible, and thus turning into the chunky meat popsicle that professional bodybuilders seemed to emulate.

To date, the only person who'd ever bothered Ling Tong's perception of himself was Gan Ning, since the cowboy was so perpetually obsessed with insulting his stature. But that was a problem with Gan Ning, not with Ling Tong, and his big-picture opinion of body type had survived intact.

Of course, there were a few drawbacks to not being a muscle-bound blockhead. Gym class had never been Ling Tong's favorite, mostly because the drill-sergeant-turned-educators who were in charge never seemed to catch on that the drama enthusiast's "be all you can be" stopped at about five push-ups. And while any number of girls could squeak by with that, Ling Tong—since he was _not_ a girl, thank you very much—found himself the victim of bullying whenever high school requirements demanded he suffer through gym.

When he could get away with it, the drama student's going policy was to lurk at the back of whatever game was being played and do his best not to get involved. The trouble was, that wasn't going to work this time. No.

This time, he was caught in a dodgeball game of the deadliest proportions.

"Incoming!"

Sun Ce's shout soared across the open field, moving in time to the rubber ball winging from his hand. Without bothering to check its intended target, Ling Tong jumped left—and as he'd guessed, the ball landed right where he'd been standing, hitting the ground hard enough to send dirt and pine needles into the air. From across the boundary line, Camp Wu's little conqueror sent him a scowl, waving one fist through the bright afternoon air.

"Hold still, will ya?" he yelled, narrowly avoiding a missile aimed for his own face. Ling Tong huffed and shook his ponytail away from his neck.

"Why? So you can hit me?"

Sun Ce laughed, his vicious grin a match to the predatory dinosaur he was nicknamed after. "That would be the idea!" the other boy called back, his attention shifting as a second ball sailed in his direction. This one he caught, and the little boy who had thrown it stomped toward the sidelines, joining his fellow youngsters just out of bounds.

"Sun Ce! Stop picking on the kids!" Shang Xiang called from Ling Tong's side of the center line, hands perched on her hips. Sun Ce stuck out his tongue, dodging back as another ill-aimed projectile landed at his feet.

"I'm not picking on the kids. I'm picking on Queenie."

"What else is new?" Ling Tong grumbled under his breath. Then Taishi Ci flung another ball at him, and the drama student hit the dirt, cursing the indignity of it all as the backyard weapon sailed over his head.

Ling Tong had gotten decidedly tired of playing games. In the week and a half or so since Lu Xun's injury, the inmates of Camp Wu had done nearly nothing else. For now, the division of activities Cheng Pu had first described was proceeding only haltingly—none of the directors had gotten the chance to map out a new horseback riding route, apparently, so Ling Tong and Gan Ning had absolutely nowhere to take their share of the brats.

Why so many other counselors had chosen to forsake their activities and hang around camp, Ling Tong didn't know. But they certainly had, and hardly an afternoon had gone by in the past twelve days that didn't involve some great conglomeration of all the delinquents and a game at the drama student's expense.

First, it was the swimming, which came with no end of pranks. Then they'd moved on to soccer, kickball, softball and flag football—all of which, at the end of the day, were enough to give Ling Tong any manner of bumps and bruises. They had peeled through different games at a tremendous rate, switching as often as necessary to satisfy Sun Ce's extremely limited attention span. And here they were at last, engaged in the mother of all gym-class hazing rituals: dodgeball.

And Ling Tong, once again, was everybody's target.

"Look ou' there, girly!"

Gan Ning's warning pulled the drama student's gaze up from the ground, widening his eyes at the sight of Lu Meng's latest bullet bearing down on him—but he needn't have worried, because everybody's favorite cowboy stepped in front of him and caught the ball easily. From the other side of the field, Lu Meng marched for the sidelines, and Gan Ning sent the drama student a backward smile.

"Yeh're jus' gonna get hit, sittin' aroun' like that."

With a frown that chased the summer sun from his features, Ling Tong pushed back to his feet, brushing dirt and broken twigs from his already well-soiled jeans. "I wasn't sitting around," the drama student snapped. "I was just getting out of the way. Do I have a big 'hit me' sign on my forehead or something? They're all aiming for me!"

Gan Ning laughed, and the sound grated against Ling Tong's nerves. "In a way, yeh do," the cowboy said, moving left to grab a rolling projectile before it moved out of bounds. "It's that attitude o'yers."

Ling Tong's scowl darkened yet further, sharpening his glare against Gan Ning's back. "Well, excuse me for not relishing my new career as target practice," the drama student shot back, a skip sideways narrowly protecting him from Taishi Ci's latest attempt on his life. But Gan Ning only shook his head, tossing a spare ball back in his cabin mate's direction.

"So try beatin' them at their own game. Might lay off'a yeh, if yeh were fightin' back a little."

Ling Tong caught the ball and squished it between his hands, strangling the rubber projectile in place of the nonchalant cowboy before him—or better yet, the young camp dictator who was moving higher up the drama student's hit list with every passing day.

Ling Tong hadn't wanted to play dodgeball. Not that he'd wanted to play the other games, either, of course—but in the last five or six days, Ling Tong had largely given in to his fate, well aware by now that trying to fight Sun Ce's juvenile whims was like trying to fight a riptide. But when dodgeball came on the table, the drama student had actually protested outright, willing to risk even the barbs of his peers to hold off the dreaded gym classic.

And what had it gotten him in the end? A few condescending laughs and Sun Ce's absolute, unwavering insistence that they play dodgeball and only dodgeball for the next three days.

Ling Tong was going to have to learn to keep his mouth shut.

Of course, the other counselors and a good number of the kids had jumped onboard only moments after Camp Wu's local tyrant. Aside from the campers themselves, who seemed to Ling Tong to be switching teams as often as they liked, they had squared off five on five: Sun Ce and his posse versus Ling Tong's team, marginally led by Zhou Yu.

"Oh, great—now we're down a man. Way to screw it up, Lu Meng—"

Sun Ce's shout cut off with a yelp as the loudmouthed captain dove out of the way, barely fast enough to dodge the flurry of enemy dodgeballs now aimed squarely at him. Ling Tong noticed that the captain of his own team, namely Sun Ce's tall, dark and intimidating sidekick, had leveled a projectile or two of his own at their beloved autocrat. Zhou Yu might have hit him, too, had a mindless child not run into the line of fire and taken the rubber ball squarely in the chest, his wide eyes instantly proving how unintentional the sacrifice had been.

Zhou Yu frowned and Sun Ce cackled, taunting the dark-haired youth with hands posed like antlers at the top of his head. "Missed me, missed me—" Zhou Yu just fired at him again, interrupting the childish jeer halfway.

Ling Tong took a step back from the action and watched them with his arms crossed, appreciating the momentary lapse of enemy pellets in his direction. It had surprised him at first—knowing what he did now about the two of them— that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu would choose to be separated for the dodgeball match, instead of banding together to gang up on the others. But now that the game proper had started, it was obvious that the only thing Sun Ce enjoyed half as much as hitting Ling Tong was aiming for Zhou Yu, and Zhou Yu seemed to take his own sort of pleasure in nailing Sun Ce, the few times it had happened so far.

Ling Tong shook his head. Talk about an unhealthy relationship.

In the end, the teams had worked out fairly enough. Lu Xun wasn't playing, naturally, and Da Qiao had chosen to keep him company, both of them watching the game from chairs on the sidelines. Xiao Qiao, who completed Ling Tong's team, was not nearly as good as she was enthusiastic—but that balanced Sun Quan and Zhou Tai, on Sun Ce's side, who were only chatting at the back of the playing field and hadn't touched a ball once since the game began. Which left Sun Ce and his two bruiser bears to take on Zhou Yu, Shang Xiang and Gan Ning…

And Ling Tong. The bullet receptacle.

"Hurry up and throw, Queenie! You're hogging the ball!"

Sun Ce's shout startled Ling Tong worse than he'd have like to admit, and without waiting to take careful aim he thrust the rubber ball away from himself, hoping its improvised flight path would dead-end smack in the middle of his adversary's face.

On that count, he wasn't so lucky. His missile was intercepted long before it got there, and in the back of a little kid's head, no less. The boy, who was on Ling Tong's own team and understandably not expecting an assault from behind, crumpled to his knees with eyes the size of dinner plates, and the game screeched to a temporary halt, doubly enforced by Shang Xiang jogging to his side.

"Okay, time out, everybody! Just hold up a minute." The young woman knelt to examine the surprised but apparently unharmed child, and Sun Ce kicked a clump of dirt, his voice sailing in taunt across the center line.

"Nice shot, Queenie."

Ling Tong dropped both hands to his hips, eyes flashing with the annoyance he'd been building up over the last few days. "Oh, yeah—I definitely aimed right for him, Sun Ce," the drama student returned, his posture only enhancing his sarcasm. "I was just biding my time until I could get my own teammate right in the skull—"

"Actions speak louder than words," the sunshine youth said, grinning to match his brilliant eyes. Ling Tong threw up his hands and wasted no time in marching toward the sidelines.

"Fine! Why don't I just take myself out of this game, then? It's not like I want to play with you anyway—"

"Hold it, girly."

There was a tug on the back of his shirt, and Ling Tong glanced over one shoulder to see that Gan Ning had taken hold of his collar, the fabric stretching out between them. The drama student gave himself a good shake to unhook his cabin mate's hand, but the cowboy only tipped his head, smiling beneath an uncombed crown of hair.

"You don' get out fer hittin' one o'yer own. Yer still in th'game."

Ling Tong opened his mouth to say that his stalk to the sidelines had considerably less to do with the rules than it did with a certain cackling tyrant, and that no broom-headed excuse for a counselor was going to stop him from doing what he liked—but he didn't get the chance, because Sun Ce was calling back to him, a gleeful expression on his face.

"Yeah, you can't leave, Queenie. I haven't hit you yet today!"

"And that's supposed to make me want to _stay_?" Ling Tong snipped, turning his back on Camp Wu's little dictator and reaching up to tighten his falling ponytail.

Then all of a sudden a face appeared in front of him, and the drama student stepped back sharply in surprise, his heartbeat escalating for a moment before he realized that it was only Xiao Qiao. The girl bounced a little on the balls of her feet and shot him a secretive smile, one hand reaching forward to tangle into the fabric of his t-shirt.

"Hey, Queenie, listen up. I've got a really great plan."

"A… a plan for what?" Ling Tong wanted to know, a little unnerved by the way she had leaned toward him as she spoke. Now that he had gotten to know Xiao Qiao a little better, he was pretty sure the girl was unaware of how close she got to people when she wanted to talk to them—but all the same, it was mildly disconcerting to be dealing with a professional flirt on such a one-on-one basis. Especially when he was as green as new wood in that playing field.

Xiao Qiao giggled, her bright, childish eyes gleaming as she bopped her head from side to side. "To win the game, silly. We just have to get all of their counselors out, right? Lu Meng's already out, so that just leaves four. And I know how to do it."

"Shouldn't you be talking to Zhou Yu about that?" Ling Tong asked, doing his best to ignore her mindless proximity and half hoping that his question would send her scurrying away to put the moves on his team captain instead. But the girl just shrugged, her smile as strong as ever.

"I wanted to talk to you first, 'cause you're the most important part," she explained, and Ling Tong was very much mistaken if her eyelashes didn't flutter just a little as she said it. But a moment later he was distracted by a touch on his shoulder, and glanced up to find that Gan Ning had appeared at his side once again, his second hand settling good-naturedly onto Xiao Qiao's head.

"What're yeh whisperin' about now, Jelly Bean?"

The girl withdrew her hand from Ling Tong's shirt so she could smother her laughter, and the drama student tried not to sigh in relief as her arm drew away. Whether he was successful or not, Xiao Qiao didn't seem to notice anything, her excitement undimmed on her pretty features.

"I've got a plan. And I'm so glad you came over, Texas, 'cause Queenie's going to need your help to make it work."

Gan Ning's help? Ling Tong couldn't help his scoff, only too clear an expression of his opinion about the partnership, though for some reason his cabin mate's smile hadn't waned much upon hearing her proposition. This time, Xiao Qiao caught his skepticism, and she shook her finger at the drama student, even her chastising pout somehow too cutesy to take seriously.

"None of that, Queenie. This won't work unless you two help each other." The girl's lips melted back into a smile again, encouraging like the hand that had returned to his arm. "Think positive—you could get along, right? Just long enough to get back at T-rex?"

Ling Tong was none too sure about that. One the one hand, he and Gan Ning had been getting along better since their skirmish at the lake, and excepting the overuse of his demeaning nickname—which definitely counted in the drama student's mind—the cowboy hadn't technically done anything worse than teasing for a good four or five days. But all that had only served to make Ling Tong less sure than ever about where they stood with each other, and how he felt about their possibly temporary truce.

Not that he was letting up on Gan Ning, or anything. He still hated the ragtag cowboy just as much as he had on day one…

Well. Almost as much, anyway.

Gan Ning was not privy to the drama student's thoughts—if he had been, he might not have slung his arm quite so jovially around Ling Tong's shoulders, ignoring the other boy's immediate tension. "Why don't yeh let us hear what'cha have in mind, Jelly Bean, 'n we'll go from there," he suggested, sending Xiao Qiao a wink. Ling Tong elbowed him in the ribs as the young woman leaned up to whisper in their ears.

"Okay. So it's like this…"

As he listened to her excited whisper, Ling Tong felt his mood souring from mildly cynical to outright disbelieving, and he shot Gan Ning a glance to see if the shift was happening in his suggested partner in crime, as well. But common sense had never been the cowboy's strong suit, and it was obvious from his genial grin that he hadn't grasped so much as the tail end of how impossible this plan really was. He did seem to have found some humor in it, though…

At Ling Tong's expense, as usual.

"Well, I dunno, Jelly Bean," Gan Ning drawled, tipping his head back and regarding the drama student with lazy, laughing eyes. "S'not a bad plan at all, really—but yeh're sure yeh want'ta trust girly's aim on this? We've been playin' all mornin' an' he's barely hit air…"

"Oh, shut up, Gan Ning," Ling Tong snapped as Xiao Qiao stepped back from them. "At least I _understand_ the plan. You probably lost her after the third word—"

"Wait, wait!" The request was accompanied by a small hand over each of their mouths, and the touch was enough to startle Ling Tong into silence. Xiao Qiao smiled up at them. "That's the perfect mood. Just hang onto it for a sec, while I talk it over with Stony. And don't forget to watch for my signal!" Then the girl removed her hands and skipped away across the dodgeball court, heading for Zhou Yu's granite sentinel at the other side of the field.

A scowl leaked onto Ling Tong's face, sharpening as he blew his bangs out of his eyes. "I never said I'd do it," he grumbled. Gan Ning just laughed, adjusting the peak of his cowboy hat with heavily tanned fingers.

"Ah, yeh'll do it. If yeh can."

Ling Tong scoffed. "Look who's talking. You're not exactly an Olympic athlete yourself, you know."

"Might as well be, compared ta you," Gan Ning replied, his words trailing off into a snicker. "But I guess a little muscle might mess with yer figure, huh?"

With a glare that might have leveled Tokyo, Ling Tong rounded on his cabin mate once more, a dozen or so poison insults crowded on the tip of his tongue. But he didn't get a chance to spit them out, because Xiao Qiao had concluded her conversation with Zhou Yu in record time and someone gave a loud whistle, filling the air with horded dodgeballs as soon as the signal was given.

The drama student was so caught off-guard by the sudden barrage of missiles—most of them aimed at him, of course—that he was almost knocked out immediately, a mistake that would have irrevocably ruined Xiao Qiao's simple and yet seemingly impossible plan. Fortunately, there was a friendly, neighborhood cowboy to push him out of the way of the incoming bombardment, a motion that simultaneously jumpstarted his awareness and his rapidly shortening temper.

Ling Tong growled in his throat and struggled to keep his feet after the hard shove, another near miss singing past his ear as he gathered a dodgeball into his arms. "Gan Ning, you're such a brute! Do you have to knock me off my feet every time you lumber from one side to the other?"

Gan Ning snorted, glancing past him at Xiao Qiao before stooping to grab a ball that was darting in his direction. "Gee, girly. Helluva way ta thank someone, don'tcha think?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks for my practically dislocated shoulder. Next time, why not go all the way through the bone!"

The shout was louder than Ling Tong intended—loud enough to get the attention of everyone on the playing field, and it was no a few eyes that turned from their targets to stare at him instead, the number of flying dodgeballs lessening dramatically as he and Gan Ning took center stage. Suffering from the closest he'd ever come to stage fright, Ling Tong was suddenly an easy mark, frozen in place as his nervousness about the plan and his unflagging irritation with Gan Ning pushed all other concerns from his mind. But there was a guardian angel looking over his shoulder today, and she wasn't about to lose the game on account of his temper—whatever he might think of her strategy.

With a skip and a smile as wide as her face, Xiao Qiao turned a cartwheel.

Ling Tong didn't see it, his petrified stare focused on the enemy—but Gan Ning must have, because in a flash his expression changed from dismissive to determined, and he took hold of the drama student's empty hand. One good yank and Ling Tong was hurtling in his direction, his feet waffling like Jell-O as his balance deserted him.

Ling Tong felt his eyes turning to saucers in his face as his least favorite cowboy came closer and closer—and then there was a great cry, and dodgeballs filled the sky above the other team, so great in number that they seemed to blot out the sun.

Caught in the grip of Ling Tong's distraction and the subsequent surprise attack, the members of Sun Ce's team fell one after another. Xiao Qiao missed her shot, but Zhou Yu did not, and almost simultaneously his and Shang Xiang's dodgeballs hit Zhou Tai and Sun Quan, pulling twin looks of shock onto the inactive players' faces. The hoarded dodgeballs took out camper after camper, and Taishi Ci was finally felled by a whole pack of innovative young Davids who had learned to aim for Goliath's knees.

Only Sun Ce was left. Whether by skill or by strength of stubborn will alone, he was untouchable, ducking or catching every dodgeball that flew his way. Even when Zhou Yu and the other counselors had taken care of their targets and refocused on the leader, no one could hit him—and however much his mouth was moving, a gabber of shouts that Ling Tong couldn't understand, it wasn't getting in the way of his rock-solid defense.

But that was all right. Because Ling Tong was still moving.

With all the grace of a newborn flamingo, the drama student managed to get his feet under control as he stumbled toward Gan Ning, the cowboy's continuous yank still a good half of his momentum. Just before Ling Tong was sure he would have crashed face-first into his cabin mate, Gan Ning pivoted on his heel and turned in a circle, dragging Ling Tong along with him. The drama student felt like the missile in the crook of a slingshot—and then he was, as Gan Ning let go and sent him hurtling toward the center line.

_You're our very best hope, Queenie_, Xiao Qiao had said. _He's not gonna see you coming. Just one good shot…_

One good shot. She was asking for his first good shot of the game—of his entire dodgeball career. But he had to make it, or face Sun Ce's merciless laughter for the rest of the summer—

The center line was only a few steps away. Calling on every ounce of strength he possessed, Ling Tong flung his dodgeball at his one true adversary, the little dictator of Camp Wu. Every muscle in his body was concentrated into the throw, and he lost his feet as soon as the ball left his hand, desperation disrupting his already shaky balance. Then Ling Tong was tumbling toward the hard dirt of the field—but he didn't take his eyes off the ball that was sailing closer and closer to its intended target, falling so fast that there was no way it could…

With a dull thud, the dodgeball hit Sun Ce's shin. Then it dropped to the ground and rolled harmlessly away from his startled feet, and two wide amber eyes turned to stare at Ling Tong where he lay in the pine needles, breathing heavily from adrenaline and his short sprint. A shout went up through the drama student's teammates, and fifteen fists struck the warm summer air in triumph, indisputable proof that Ling Tong had accomplished the impossible.

He had beaten Sun Ce at dodgeball.

"Hey! What kind of lame out was that?" Sun Ce yelled in protest, shaking his leg as though to disrupt the feeling of being hit. But no one paid him any attention. Lu Xun and Da Qiao were cheering from the bench, though Lu Meng was not, and the victorious young campers were dancing around their defeated friends in a surefire attempt to start a fight. Even Zhou Yu had a thin smirk on his face as he moved to Sun Ce's side, and Shang Xiang and Xiao Qiao had linked arms to spin in a circle, laughing like schoolgirls at their unexpected victory. And maybe his favorite part was the sun-browned hand reaching down to him, warm like the smile that had conquered his rival's face.

"Good job, girly," Gan Ning said, eyes bright with the endless sunshine.

And for a minute, even the nickname didn't matter.

.x.

For the rest of that day and into the next, dodgeball was the only thing on the minds of Camp Wu's inhabitants.

The story of Ling Tong's surprising victory over the young delinquent who ruled the lake had spread like summer wildfire from cabin to cabin, and it wasn't long before everyone who bumped into the drama student had a comment to make about his Hail Mary shot, even if that comment was just squealing admiration from Greta and the girls in her group. Some small number of campers had even begun to call him the Dodgeball King—and while the nickname was eons away from catching on around camp, Ling Tong couldn't help wondering if it was a not-so-subtle stab at Sun Ce, the self-proclaimed king of the dinosaurs.

Ling Tong didn't like his new nickname any more than his old one.

Not that he was trying to be picky. But anyone with eyes could see that his miraculous win had been nothing more than dumb luck, and victories of that kind didn't count for beans in the drama student's opinion. Not to mention the fact that Sun Ce would be scrambling to the top of the dog pile again just as soon as they played another game—no matter what it was—and it was ridiculous to implement a name change every time Sun Ce's spotlight went off for five minutes and someone else got a few crumbs of glory.

Besides which, Dodgeball King sounded like the kind of nickname a backyard bully might get, and Ling Tong was entirely disinterested in being associated with one of those.

"Hey, girly."

Ah, good old Gan Ning. Always quick to point out which side of the fence Ling Tong was really on.

With a frown and a sigh for his derailed thoughts, Ling Tong looked up from where he'd been sitting on the steps of his cabin, squinting into the sun that was poised behind his rival. Gan Ning seemed to be holding something out to him, a circular lump wrapped in white paper, and the drama student considered him in silence a moment before reaching up to receive whatever it was.

"And this is?"

"Ice cream san'wich," Gan Ning said, dropping uninvited onto the step next to his cabin mate. Ling Tong made a point of scooting an inch to the right—but Gan Ning hadn't been quite so excruciating lately, so the other boy let him stay, peeling back the layers of paper carefully to avoid getting anything on his fingers.

"Why'd you bring me this?" Ling Tong asked, uncertain whether he sounded accusing or curious and less sure which he meant to be.

Gan Ning slipped him a smile. "Maybe it's fer that superstar shot o'yers yesterday." The drama student shot him a look, and the cowboy laughed a little, shrugging as he pulled a sandwich of his own from the pocket of his jeans. "Yer uncle sent it for ya. They're givin' 'em away at the cafeteria. Why aren'tcha up there, doin' crafts with the boys?"

Ling Tong scoffed, flicking his warm ponytail away from his neck. "Please. Every time I run into my uncle, he gets this enormous smile on his face—it's so embarrassing. I'm staying down here where I only get a minimum of gawkers, thanks."

Gan Ning glanced sideways at him, settling back onto the porch and taking a big bite out of his sandwich. "Ya won, ya know," he pointed out, his words even less intelligible than usual for the ice cream in his mouth. Ling Tong wrinkled his nose.

"I fell on my face and got him in the shin. Whoop-de-doo."

"Ya still won," Gan Ning returned, his voice even and his eyes clear.

Ling Tong didn't know what to say to that, so he settled for idle criticism, his brow knitting together as he leaned away from the peacefully munching cowboy. "Are all the nerves in your teeth dead, or what? These are freezing—how can you chew it up like that?"

Gan Ning lifted an unconcerned eyebrow, licking a stripe of chocolate from his lips. "Least mine's not drippin' all over the place. Would'ja put it in yer mouth already?"

Ling Tong rolled his eyes, but in the end he did as his cabin partner suggested and started in on the sandwich, fighting to keep ice cream and cookie together under the glaring summer sun. The heat and the purr of forest insects kept them silent while they ate, Ling Tong letting the ice cream melt naturally on his tongue while Gan Ning took big bites and chewed them so slowly that his companion began to wonder if cowboys, like cows, were known for deliberating over their cud. Ling Tong finished first, and then he leaned against the ragged railing to his right, listening to the far-off shouts of a game being played.

It wasn't hard to guess which game.

"It is kind of funny, though, huh?" Ling Tong asked, earning a baffled glance from the boy beside him. "I mean, us winning the dodgeball game."

That made Gan Ning smile, and he swallowed his last bite in a hurry, crumpling the streaked wrapper in one darkened hand. "Thought ya said it wasn' worth celebratin'."

"It's not," Ling Tong said, trying to keep annoyance from flustering his tone. "I just meant… Sun Ce's the golden boy around here. Everyone loves him, God knows why, and no matter what he's doing he's at the head of the pack… and then there's me." What little coherence his explanation had started with seemed to have run out, so Ling Tong stopped, staring away into the trees to avoid Gan Ning's steady eyes. "It's just funny."

Gan Ning returned to silence for a moment, studying his companion as he licked the ice cream from his fingers. Then his lips settled into a grin, almost demonic for the remnants of cookie rimming his mouth.

"Yeh're gloatin'."

Ling Tong felt a small measure of indignant color rushing into his cheeks. "I am not!" he snapped. Then he pushed to his feet and ground his wrapper into the dirt, crushing it as a substitute for his rival's face as he turned toward the lake. "Forget I said anything. I don't know why I keep trying to talk to someone who smears ice cream all over his face like a ten-year-old—"

"Hey."

The light word was accompanied by a hand around his wrist, and Ling Tong looked back at the offending appendage, the one irritating barrier between him and stomping off in a huff. Gan Ning just smiled, strands of scarecrow hair infiltrating his eyes.

"I was teasin', girly."

Ling Tong knew that. Gan Ning only teased. He never said anything meant to get more than an inch under your skin. It annoyed Ling Tong that he knew that. It annoyed him more that he was getting used to it. But he didn't get to say so, or whatever else he might have said, because Gan Ning wasn't done, his voice low and amused under the spell of his chocolate smile.

"We don' make such a bad team, huh?"

The drama student shifted his weight, moving just enough that Gan Ning's hand tightened around his. "I guess it could be worse," Ling Tong grumbled, waving away a fly but keeping eye contact with the other boy. "When you're being bearable, that is."

The cowboy shook his head. "I ain't the one takin' lessons from a spittin' cobra, girly."

"And I'm not the one who's stuck in a bad John Wayne impression," Ling Tong returned, trying not to wince as he realized what a petty insult it actually was. But Gan Ning only laughed, tapping the toe of one cowboy boot aimlessly against the step.

"Well, _pilgrim_," he said, his accent sharpening intentionally as his lips twisted into a smirk. "I'd lay odds yeh couldn' even tell me what movie I'm impersonatin'. _Stagecoach_? _El Dorado_? Rooster Cogburn? Those names mean anythin' to yeh?"

"Only that somebody hasn't updated his movie collection since the 70s," Ling Tong returned, running his free hand through the warm strands of his ponytail. The young cowboy sighed and shook his head.

"Too bad. Yeh've got Hepburn written all over ya."

Gan Ning's face were serious, but his eyes were too bright; they belied any grief he'd managed to affect, undercutting his solemn tone like a stone skipped across an empty lake. Ling Tong scowled and tossed his head a little, but even he realized how much the action was for show, and how little Gan Ning's jab had really bothered him. Then he realized something else, and it froze him stiff, widening brown eyes in his newly freckled face.

They were just playing.

Him and Gan Ning. Playing. For fun.

When had all this happened?

With a jerk quite a bit more forceful than necessary, Ling Tong dislodged his hand from Gan Ning's and took a step back, his mind searching of an emergency escape route. He had to get away from Gan Ning—at least until he figured out what was going on, and why his flesh wasn't curdling where the cowboy had touched him. Gan Ning was looking at him in no small measure of confusion, and the drama student stepped back again, his spinning mind leaving his tongue embarrassingly incoherent.

"I… ah… I have to get back… to the dining hall," Ling Tong managed, praying that the sun lent his face too many shadows for Gan Ning to read his expression. "I mean, my uncle… he'll be looking for me."

Gan Ning blinked and glanced at the ice cream wrapper lying between them, and Ling Tong snatched it up, crunching it between his hands as though he could crush the cowboy's uncertainty at the same time. The drama student turned away from his companion, restless fingers tearing the waxy paper into confetti strips as he cleared his nervous throat.

"Thanks—for the sandwich," he finished, hoping he sounded more decisive than he felt. Then Ling Tong broke into a power walk and hurried across the campground, trying not to hear Gan Ning's departing hail.

"Anytime, girly!"

Without knowing why, Ling Tong found that his feet had accelerated into a run, and he sped up with them, dashing a zigzag through the cabins and the groups of wandering campers. His heart was pounding too fast for the short distance he'd come, and his head was pounding right along with it, spitting back images from the conversation he'd just fled. Gan Ning laughing, and his cheeky smile, and his hand reaching out—

Playing. Just _playing_.

Ling Tong shook his head as hard as he could, his ponytail flapping behind him like an abandoned banner. No. No way. He wasn't friends with Gan Ning. He wanted nothing to do with the languid delinquent and his bird's nest of a headdress. Nothing. There was no reason to play nice with Gan Ning, and the drama student sure as hell wasn't going to start now. It was just that he… didn't…

Didn't hate Gan Ning?

Before Ling Tong had time to examine the bombshell one half of his mind had just dropped on the other, he had reached the doors to the main lodge and dashed into the minimal air conditioning, closing his eyes in relief as the burden of the summer sun disappeared from his shoulders. Shang Xiang blinked at him from where she'd been speaking to Han Dang in the hallway, her hazel eyes scouring Ling Tong's face as though the reason for his haste might be scrawled across his forehead.

"Queenie? You okay?"

"Sure, I'm just—where's my uncle?" Ling Tong asked instead, wiping a bead of sweat away from his neck. He was far too focused on finding something—anything—to put the early afternoon's events from his mind to care about his demeaning nickname. He barely even heard Shang Xiang's answer, and it was her pointing finger more than her voice that registered in his jumbled mind.

"In the office, last I saw. But he was on the phone, so don't—"

Too late. Ling Tong was down the hall and into the room that served as the lodge's command center almost before he felt his feet moving; there was no time to consider what he might be interrupting.

It was cooler in the office than anywhere Ling Tong had been in weeks, and for a moment that was all that he noticed, distracted by the current of falsely cool air that a fan somewhere was directing into his face. When he did take a look around, the drama student discovered three identical desks, each one occupied by a traditional assortment of papers, pens and office supplies. Cheng Pu stood at the corner table, a black phone cord trailing from his ear and his back to the new arrival. He turned when the aging door clapped shut on the heels of his nephew, and Ling Tong was suddenly reminded of the giddy excitement that had kept him away from the lodge for the past 24 hours—but that wasn't the expression on his uncle's face now. No, this smile was much more forced, and even a little worried.

"Well, you have good timing," Cheng Pu said into the phone, though his eyes were less convincing than his voice as he said it. "He's just come in, actually. I guess you'd like to talk to him."

Ling Tong opened his mouth to ask, but Cheng Pu only waved him over, relinquishing the phone and slipping a hand onto his nephew's shoulder. Caught between thoughts of Gan Ning and curiosity about the situation he had stumbled into, the drama student pressed the phone to his ear with more than a little hesitation, waiting for a voice over the crackle of an unsteady connection. "Hello?"

"Tong! How are you?"

Ling Tong's eyes were wide again, shooting to his uncle now in a stare of pure surprise. "Mom?"

"Yes, honey. We're calling from France. I know your father said we wouldn't be able to, since it gets to be so expensive, but I just missed my boy so much…"

For perhaps the first time in his life, Ling Tong was a little embarrassed by his mother's affection, and he shifted his feet, the close to three weeks he had spent away from her suddenly seeming like so much longer. "Yeah. No, it's… it's really great to hear from you. Isn't it the middle of the night over there?"

Mrs. Ling laughed, her voice soft with the decay of distance. "A little shy of midnight. But that doesn't matter. Tell me how you like camp. Is it a lot of fun?"

Cheng Pu was looking at him with steady eyes, and Ling Tong turned so he couldn't see his uncle, wondering just how much the older man could hear around the receiver. "Well, I'm getting used to it, I guess," he muttered, a futile attempt to keep the words out of his uncle's hearing. "It can be fun once in a while."

Ling Tong wondered what he'd meant by that, and whether he'd meant it at all. But his mother only gave a happy sigh as her voice became almost a coo, gentle and smooth like a nightingale's. "Oh, good. Are you making any friends?"

_Friends_. The word put Gan Ning into his head again, and that made Ling Tong frown, brushing his hair back as though the persistent cowboy could be dismissed as easily as his bangs. "I wouldn't go that far," he said, glancing over at Cheng Pu to gauge his reaction. But his uncle hadn't moved an inch—Ling Tong would swear he hadn't even blinked, and there was a seriousness to his expression that made his nephew a little nervous, too. Ling Tong adjusted his grip on the phone and cradled it against his neck, watching a herd of children passing outside the old-fashioned windows. "So, why are you calling—so late, I mean? Did something happen?"

Again his mother's laughter filled Ling Tong's ears, and it sounded happier than usual, as though her brother's earlier excitement about the dodgeball game had somehow been transferred through the phone. "Oh, no," she said. "Nothing like that. Everything's fine here. It's just that I couldn't wait—I got some wonderful news, and I wanted to share it with you right away."

"Oh, yeah?" Ling Tong fiddled with the phone cord, wondering with waning interest what kind of promotion his parents had stumbled into now. "So, what's the big news?"

"Well, you know our neighbors, the Millers." The drama student blinked, lines of confusion gathering on his forehead as his gaze wandered back to Cheng Pu's stoic face. "You remember they were spending the summer in the Virgin Islands."

"Yeah," Ling Tong answered to show he was listening, though he hadn't cared the first time where the Millers were off to. But his mother was excited now, he could hear it, and her voice lifted until it was almost loud enough to cover the static.

"Well, it turns out Thomas made the football team this year, and they had to come back early for practices. So they're home now." Silence slipped between them, tense with the knot of something Ling Tong couldn't place that was growing in his stomach. Mrs. Ling cleared her throat. "You know what that means, right, Tong?"

Ling Tong's fingers tightened around the phone; and the air conditioning must have gotten to them, because they felt cold as ice where they brushed his face.

His mother was still talking. "You can go home, sweetie. You don't have to stay at that camp anymore."

Cheng Pu was watching him, not even a semblance of his dismal smile remaining. Ling Tong returned his stare, still as stone beneath the spell of the telephone. Neither of them spoke, only one voice standing between them in the silence.

"Tong? Are you still there?"

Ling Tong squeezed his eyes shut.

Now what?

End Chapter 14


End file.
